


Space Cadet

by spacedoutorion



Category: Metallica
Genre: Angst, Angst and Tragedy, Blow Jobs, Broken Promises, Car Sex, Consensual Sex, Dorks in Love, Events leading to Metallica and Cliff’s death, F/M, Falling In Love, Fluff, Friendship/Love, Fucking, Genderfluid Reader, Heartbreak, Hopeless Romantic, Idiots in Love, Inspired by Music, Love, Marijuana, Metallica - Freeform, Music, Nonbinary, Oral Sex, Past Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Porn With Plot, Promises, Public Sex, Recreational Drug Use, Rough Sex, Semi-Public Sex, Sex, Shower Sex, Smoking, Smut, Song Lyrics, Song references, Sorry Not Sorry, Tragedy, Traumatic Experiences, Vaginal Sex, Vanilla, unprotected sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-13
Updated: 2019-05-23
Packaged: 2019-10-27 10:07:50
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 41,835
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17764754
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spacedoutorion/pseuds/spacedoutorion
Summary: Imagine being high school sweethearts with Cliff Burton.





	1. Trojans

**Author's Note:**

> AS OF 13 JUNE 2019, SPACE CADET IS PERMANENTLY DISCONTINUED. THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR SUPPORTING THIS PIECE OF WORK AND IT SADDENS ME THAT I WILL NOT GET TO SEE IT FINISHED. I HAVE HAD A LOT OF FUN WRITING THE CHAPTERS THAT I HAVE WRITTEN, HOWEVER, I CURRENTLY DO NOT HAVE THE WILL NOR THE TIME TO REALLY CONTINUE THIS WORK. 
> 
> I will however keep it online... There just won't be any more chapter additions to the story.
> 
>  
> 
> *** UPDATE 03/20/2019 ***  
> I made a minor correction at the end of the chapter to emphasize that Cliff lives in an apartment and not a house to help set up for the next chapter. 
> 
> -
> 
> All respect and love for Cliff Burton and his privacy.
> 
> More chapters to come.
> 
> New writer on AO3... Hope you guys enjoy.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cliff Burton asks you out to prom.

Spring 1980. Castro Valley High School, Castro Valley, California.

Trojans.

Prom season.

It was that time of year again where everyone was raving about prom, which was a sign that your senior year of high school was coming closer and closer to its end. You weren’t really fond of the idea of prom, as the thought of wearing a dress to it was utterly disgusting, but you did want to go, as a final memory for high school. Now... Who to go with, was the question that wracked your brain as you walked towards your locker. You didn’t necessarily need a date to enjoy prom, but it was most definitely a perk to the whole experience. Once you open up the door to your locker, revealing your NWOBHM album covers, as well as some other seemingly satanic decorations along the door of your locker, you place your textbooks inside. As usual, you were early, class not starting for another 20 minutes. You were going to take this time to assess what needed to be done before then. Your mental checklist started wracking in your brain, nagging at you to make sure that you finished the tasks that you laid out for yourself.

Your thoughts were interrupted by a light tapping behind your locker door.

“Knock knock” a familiar voice chimes, your eyes diverting to your locker door, which then led to the bellbottom jeans of a certain someone you knew.

“Cliff?” you challenge in terms of familiarity, poking your head out to the side to be greeted by the goofiest smile you have ever seen your best friend make. He has been your friend since you were both very small, being next door neighbors and all. You step to the side and shot a smile back his way. “Hey! What’s up?”

Cliff cryptically glances around to make sure that the two of you are alone. There was definitely something that he needed to get off his chest. “Can I talk to you?”

You raised a brow. “I mean... you... ARE talking to me...” you chided sarcastically.

Cliff closed your locker with a deafening slam, rolling his eyes. “Okay, smartass. CAN we talk?”

“Hey! I wasn’t done yet!” You pouted, crossing your arms. “Is this so important that you had to close my locker...?”

“I’d say so.” Cliff shook his head at your childishness. “So can we?”

“Since you asked SO nicely, yeah, space cadet.”

He chuckled in amusement with that nickname with a shake of his head, seeming to be disapproving of the pet name. “Why do you keep calling me that?”

You had called him 'space cadet' in your physics class this past year ever since your teacher discussed astronomy and the universe and something sparked in you to call Cliff that nickname... You respond, “Because you’re really out there... Like the furthest star.” You grinned cheekily with that, knowing that you would annoy him with your words. “So out there that you’re out of this world.”

Cliff scowled with slight disgust. “You’re so fucking lame.”

“All right, all right. What didja wanna talk about?”

Cliff gestured for you to follow him.

“Does this really require walking?”

He simply walks off, expecting you to follow him, which leads you to groaning in protest. Yet, you still willed yourself to follow him out of the building and into the high school’s field in the frosty bitterness of spring’s morning. You weren't sure why it was always so cold during the morning time and hot during the afternoon... It made you wonder what clothes you should be wearing at all cost. You were too into your own thoughts when Cliff started mumbling words to you.

“So... Prom’s comin up...” he starts slowly, standing in the middle of the field with you in front of him. “I was wondering if you wanted to be my date. Just you and me. Two freaks at a dance of assholes. Whaddya say?” were the words that quickly jumbled out of his mouth that you caught. It was certain that he had been thinking about this for a while, as the words flowed out of his mouth like a waterfall of confessions. You felt your cheeks grow hot as you bit your lip. With that response, Cliff immediately began to fidget, bracing for the worst possible answer from you.

With a deep breath, you replied, “I’d either have to be a dumbass or a fool to say no to that offer. Of course I’ll go to prom with you, Cliff! Were you really expecting me to say no?”

You couldn’t believe it. Cliff Burton asking you out to prom after gracing over the thought of asking him to go to prom with you.

Great minds think alike, you supposed.

Cliff gave a sheepish smile. “I was expectin’ someone as pretty as you to already have a date.”

That comment made you blush even more. “Cliff! I ain’t pretty in the eyes of everyone here... No one wants to be with the tomboy.”

“But that quality of yourself is what makes you extremely attractive to me, (Y/N) I.. uh. I got a confession to make.”

You gaze at him curiously with that comment. “And... what’s that?” you question almost hesitantly.

Cliff takes a deep breath, standing a little closer to you. “I see the way that you look at me, and the way that you are around me and uh... I just wanna make sure that our feelings are mutual., (Y/N)... I’ve liked you since we met back when you moved in as my next door neighbor... From the day your family moved in to the first days of class at Marshall... My interest in you hasn’t really gone away... Plus, you like what I like, including the same music as I do, and you sing and play music too. That’s a bonus.” He gives an awkward laugh and looks away sheepishly. “I can give two fucks if you're a tomboy...  
I don't care what you identify as... Boy, girl, somethin' else... You're human, a really wonderful one at that... and uh... I guess what I’m trying to say is... wouldja wanna be mine...? My partner...? Not just for prom... but in general.”

You blush vividly at his statement and quickly nod your head, impressed by the amount of respect that this man had for you... After all this time, the cat was finally out of the bag, and you couldn't believe it. “I’ve always wanted to confess to you, but haven’t... I’m glad we’re in the same boat... I've loved you for the longest time, Cliff... I just didn’t want to dent our—“

Your sentence was interrupted by Cliff smoothly leaning in and kissing you gently on the lips. It was a long, warm, and intimate kiss. One that the two of you shared alone in the field together. He eventually pulls away, cheeks just as rosy and hot as yours. There’s a twinkle in his eyes with that. “I’ve... I’ve always wanted to do that... I uh... I hope that was okay...”

In response, you nuzzle into his chest. “That... was everything I have ever hoped for from you...”

Cliff affectionately holds you close to him as he shuts his eyes as you feel yourself melt into him.

“For the love of god, I am NOT wearing a dress to this dance...” you grumble, changing the subject.

“And I won’t wear a tux,” Cliff shrugs with that and holds you tighter. “Why don’t we dress like Iron Maiden... Misfits... Diamond Head... Black Sabbath...” he slowly continued to list various bands a part of the NWOBHM bands.

One thing they had in common...

“Spikes... tights... leather or denim jackets... killer boots.."

“Something like that. Let’s.... be out there. Show the world who we really are....”

“Sounds like a plan.” You look up at him with that and press your lips to his. "My place after class for practice?” Because Cliff lived in an apartment and had no where else to really go to practice at the volume he wanted to, you both almost always end up going to your house since you had a garage that was separate from the house. You both enjoyed whipping up musical renditions of your favorite songs as a giant stress reliever from school.

Cliff’s lips quiver as he pressed an affectionate kiss to your forehead. “Hell yeah. I can’t wait.”

You break apart as you both go your separate ways, the bell for class to start ringing as you head inside.


	2. Sucking My Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Happy Hallmark Holiday (Valentine's Day)!
> 
> To acknowledge today, here's a steamy chapter that revolves around Diamond Head's song "Sucking My Love"  
> A song notoriously known for its... fellatio motifs. This goes deeper into the reader's relationship with Cliff. 
> 
> Enjoy, and again, Happy Valentine's Day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AS OF 13 JUNE 2019, SPACE CADET IS PERMANENTLY DISCONTINUED. THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR SUPPORTING THIS PIECE OF WORK AND IT SADDENS ME THAT I WILL NOT GET TO SEE IT FINISHED. I HAVE HAD A LOT OF FUN WRITING THE CHAPTERS THAT I HAVE WRITTEN, HOWEVER, I CURRENTLY DO NOT HAVE THE WILL NOR THE TIME TO REALLY CONTINUE THIS WORK. 
> 
> I will however keep it online... There just won't be any more chapter additions to the story.
> 
> *** UPDATE 03/20/2019 ***
> 
> Just like the previous chapter, I corrected certain parts of this chapter to be more relative to Cliff's real life living situation. He did not live in a house, but an apartment complex, so instead of this chapter taking place at his place, it will be taking place in the reader's house. 
> 
> Minor things, don't mind them, especially if you didn't read the original published chapter. ;) 
> 
> -
> 
> Chapter named and based off of Diamond Head's song "Sucking My Love"
> 
> Diamond Head Version: 
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOpHDRgbeIo
> 
> Metallica Demo (Hetfield - Vocals, Mustaine - Guitar, McGovney - Bass, Ulrich, drums): 
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WovKgjVMNdg

Once the final bell of the day rang, you found yourself escaping the clutches of your teachers and hopping on your motorcycle after class, the school day finally coming to an end, to your relief. You started placing your gear on yourself, first the gloves, making sure your boots were laced up, wielding the black and red helmet to protect your head. You revved the bike to life once the helmet was snuggly on, preparing to back it out of the space when you’re taken aback by a hand wrapping around your shoulder. You tensed up with that, unsure of who it was at first.

“Were you really gonna ride off without me?” Cliff scoffs. “Seriously, (Y/N)?”

You loosened up once you realized it was Cliff, rolling your eyes and chuckling in amusement at his pout. “I thought you rode your skateboard to school today, Cliff. Honest. You know I’d never leave you behind.”

Cliff straddled the bike with that, wrapping his lengthy arms around your waist without hesitation. “I walked today. For a change.” He paused before admitting, “I was uh... half-expecting to catch a ride with you, as usual...”

“Freeloader,” you teased as your stomach started flipping the minute he wrapped his arms around you, despite this being a norm between you both when it came to riding out of the high school's lot… The feeling of butterflies churning your stomach was prominent now because you two were officially together... You thrusted the throttle again before backing out of the space and onto the road, Cliff holding onto you loosely as you sped off, the "CASTRO VALLEY HIGH SCHOOL" sign growing further and further away in your side mirror. At the stop sign, you mumbled, “Since you ride with me so often, we might as well get you a helmet so you don’t bash your head in if we crash.”

Cliff leaned in closer to you as the engine roared while you throttled to a faster pace. “I trust that you won't crash the bike.”

“Well, I don’t trust myself, because anything can happen when you ride... With how stupid drivers truly are… I've almost been knocked off while riding on the freeway… Motorcycles are great until you are reminded that you have no barrier to protect you.” You speed off with that. Cliff remains hovered over your shoulder so he can talk to you over the bike. “Fair point. Well, we're headed to your house anyways... I can just pick from what you have, since you have an assortment of them in the garage." 

“That, I do. I have quite the collection that I'm extremely proud of."

Cliff grinned. “You know, since your parents are out of town so much, you always end up bunking at my place... You practically live at my apartment, babe."

**Babe.**

Cliff called you _babe_. A petname that’s going to take some getting used to. You didn’t know that there were acrobats in your stomach, because it kept flipping inside of you. Your cheeks felt hot against the helmet as you paused at a stop sign once more, trying to play it cool. “That’s because I have no where else to go... You're my only friend, Cliff, and they know that I'll be taken care of if they drop me at your apartment... They know that I'd be happier if I was with you and your family than at home alone. 

 

“So I make you happy.” Cliff grins stupidly with that, as if he had just hit the jackpot at the lottery. “That’s a confession I’ve always wanted to hear.”

You charge forward with a deafening screech of your tires. “I mean... I can still push you off this bike.”

Cliff gasped playfully. “You wouldn’t _dare!”_

With a roll of your eyes, you eventually pull up to your house, seeing Cliff's father across the street getting out of his car to head inside the apartment complex.

Ray beamed at the sight of both of you, waving from where he stood. “(Y/N)! I’m assuming by the looks on both of your faces that you’re going to the prom together.”

You both climb off the bike almost simultaneously as Cliff wrapped an arm around you. “(Y/N) said yes.”

“I saw that coming a mile away, Cliff. You and (Y/N) have been friends since even before Kindergarten. She wouldn’t just say no to that offer from you.” He chuckled and killed the lawnmower. “You’re gonna have to go outfit shopping then.”

Cliff scowled with that. “Dad, there is no way in hell I’m wearing a tux.”

“But it’s traditional! Don’t you want to look nice on your special night?”

“We’re not going to conform to that. We’ll go to prom dressed how we want, not how they want us.”

Ray shook his head with how stern his son was about the potential idea of dressing fancy. “Well... Whatever you decide, I wish you both a wonderful night. I’m sure it’ll be fun.”

“Thanks dad,” Cliff responded, and you found yourself thanking him as well. Cliff quickly grabbed your hand in his and led you your garage, where your amps and guitars were laid out. Two stools and a microphone on a stand accompanied the layout. Once inside, he locks the door behind you both and steps in.

“Just how we left it yesterday." You and Cliff started a band many years ago, and for the longest time, it was just the two of you in a dynamic duo: you on guitar and lead vocals and Cliff on bass and the occasional foot tambourine. Every now and then, you had a drummer that presented themselves with total interest, but one never stayed. They didn’t have as much time and dedication as you both did towards music. Your current interest as a duo derived in covering NWOBHM bands, while creating your own music on the side.

It was all for fun.

Cliff sat himself down, wielding his four stringed bass guitar, plucking at the strings as he turned the tuning pegs. "Standard or half step?" he asks you as he turns the pegs, debating on what tuning you should both aim for for practice today. 

"Hmm.. Half step, just for fun," you reply with a grin as you sat down in tandem with the guitar, tuning it a half step down from standard, and warming up your vocal cords by running a couple warm ups into the mic to adjust the volume of the amp. “What song are we gonna tackle today?” you ask as you finish warming up, strumming the guitar now warming up your fingers to the cold, metal strings.

Cliff whips out a tape recorder and his walkman, popping the tape out of it, pulling a pencil out of his pocket, and rewinding the tape, concentrating at the task in front of him. “You decide this time. But... I say we record it... Because we always seem to forget to. It’s always nice to listen to recordings of ourselves to see where we can improve.” He squeezed one eye closed and stuck his tongue out as he delicately rewound the Diamond Head tape with his fingers twirling the pencil.

You couldn’t help but gaze at him with admiration as he did such a simple task with such precision and delicacy. “Diamond Head...” you slowly thought out loud as your eyes raked over the band’s name on the tape. “Let’s do a Diamond Head song...”

“Okay... which one?” He continued to rewind the _Lightning to the Nations_ tape as you thought about what song you wanted to do.

“Well... we haven’t done this one in a while...” You start strumming the beginning riff to the song, which caused Cliff to stop what he was doing, popping a fresh tape into his tape recorder, and hitting ‘record’. He brings it close to his lips, smirking as he annunciates, “Sucking my laaaave” in his makeshift, sexiest voice he could muster up. You tried your hardest not to laugh, since this was now live and embedding the recording into the tape. You couldn’t help but blush and grin simultaneously as you picked away at the guitar in your hands, standing up as the guitar strap laid against your body, tossing your head around and swaying your body as you start pouring yourself into this song. As if on cue, Cliff stands up with you and starts laying down the bass line against your lead riff, his own body swaying in time with yours, grinning as the two of you stood side by side, jamming to the riff, letting loose.

“Ohhhh yeah!” you sang as close to Sean Harris’ swagger as you could, your body dipping as you start to head bang passionately. These movements only caused Cliff to grin proudly as he too let his brown mane be free.

“Over and under, do you go down to the sea...?

Ohhh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!”

At this point, you fell into the lyrics, feeling your cheeks blush hard while you showcased the song with your lilting voice, gyrating your hips to the beat of the imaginary drums ringing in your ears while you played the riffs.

“Sweet and timely caress... dear babe fulfillin' me... Oh yeah!” Your eyes lock with Cliff’s at that, noting how beet red his cheeks were, and how... lustful those eyes suddenly were... Or was that just the song talking...?

You continue to sing, “I can feel her heart, it is beating down inside...

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!

Tast-ay! Oh! Tast-ay! Ohhh... Oh....” You start moaning, as Sean Harris does in the song. Cliff shifted with that, as your hips continued to sway. Cliff’s seemingly innocent gaze at you was transforming into desire and heat as you continued to belt out this song.

“Into her valley, all her charms, they taste of love....

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!

Fragrance of my dreams.... yeah go down, take my love...

Oh yeah, yeah!

Taste my bitter wine... cos there's something boiling up inside!

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!

Tast-ayy! Ohhhh! Tast-ayyy! Ohhhhhh....”

You start drifting into the guitar solo, shredding your heart out as you make your instrument squeal in sweet release. Falling deep into a trance of musical expression, you didn’t realize Cliff leaning towards you to kiss you roughly on the lips while still producing a bass line. Out of surprise, you let out a sensual moan, one that was genuine, your hand palm muting the guitar as the sound cut out. You weren’t sure if you were turned on because of this song, or because of the man that was in front of you. Cliff gave a soft moan too as he slowly started backing you against the garage door, lips crashing against yours with a burning passion as he turned down the volume knob to his bass guitar, which was pressed against your guitar now. You, too, turn your instrument down as Cliff passionately attacked your lips, pinning you against the door, which rattled upon impact.

“F-Fuck, Cliff...” you whimper as his hands drifted from the metal door to your sides, hands gracing down until he reached the hem of your shirt, fingers gently digging into the skin beneath, working their way up. He leaned into you with that, nosing your neck as he gave the skin a light graze with his teeth.

“Mmm... You just /had/ to choose Sucking My Love.... So dirty... So… naughty…" his voice is a low growl in your ear. "You have no idea how much that song turns me on, sweetheart... Especially with /you/ singing it in your sultry voice...” He nipped at your neck affectionately with that. 

You lean against the garage door and exhale shakily, gazing up at him. "You're fuckin' lucky my parents aren't home yet... We could get in so much trouble right now if they pull up and see us like this..."

Your sentence was interrupted by him kissing you again, his thumb massaging your stomach. "I know, baby… I know… I just couldn't resist you moving your fucking body like that… Shit…" He kissed your lips once more and pressed his body gently against you, not wanting to hurt you in any way. You whimper as you feel him against you.. How hard he is just from this simple act…

"This…" He slowly gyrates his hips into you, annunciating his libido. "This is what you did to me…" He moans gently as he shuts his eyes, groaning at the slightest bit of friction between you both. "Mm… What's the next part of the song, (Y/N)…?"

You exhale shakily once more. "It's… It's just gonna turn you and me on more..."

Cliff leans in. "I don't care… Sing me the rest of the song…"

You moan in response. "Faster…" you whisper, fingers tracing up Cliff's chest, slowly peeling the bass guitar off of him, in which he strips you of your guitar. "Faster…." you moan out softly as he closes the gap between you both.

"Faster…."

Cliff grabs a hold of you and pries you off of the garage door, leading you to another wall of the space. You let out a soft sound as Cliff was against you once again, feeling the cold, concrete against your back, Cliff’s hands snaking up underneath your shirt once more.

"O-Ohhh…. Faster…" This time, you sounded desperate.

He slowly gyrates his hips into you, not wanting to be too forceful as he whines a bit at the friction he caused, closing any space between you.

"Mmm… Faster…."

He slightly quickens his pace against you, groaning gently in tandem with your own, needy grunts.

"F…Faster…." you whisper softly and desperately, actually wanting Cliff to move against you faster.

Cliff moans deeply as he picks up the pace. "Fuck…"

"Faster… m-mmm…"

Cliff grits his teeth as he grips your hips a little tighter. "God, I just wanna fuck you right here, right now…" he whimpers with temptation as he continues to rub his hardness against you. "You and your pretty little moans… Such a beautiful sound…" he lets out another soft grunt. "Fuck, babe..."

You whimper at how fast everything escalated, your body wanting more. “I-I really want you to... B-But we can’t... Not right now, baby...”

Cliff groans deeper. “I know...” With that, he pulls away from you, immediate regret pulsing through you as your eyes glance upon the prominent bulge of his pants. You eye it before slowly asking, "Did you… want me to relieve you…? At least...? I mean... it's only fair because I did this to you..." As if on cue, Cliff felt his cock pulse against his jeans, which caused him to release a shaky breath.

"I would _love_  that…"

You find yourself reversing your positions, Cliff against the wall, and you in front of him. He shut his eyes as you start to fiddle with the zipper and button, revealing his underwear beneath. You gently rub the palm of your hand against his clothed shaft, extremely turned on by this presentation of excitement. He was so far into arousal that you could feel him pulsing as you stroked him. You carefully pulled his pants and underwear down, watching as his cock emerged from the fabric. You don't hesitate as you wrap your fingers around him, stroking him and licking the tip to start off with. This gesture alone caused Cliff to hold back a moan, his fingers tangling into your hair as you continue by wrapping your mouth around his tip, sucking while stroking his shaft. With every wave of pleasure that struck him, Cliff tugged at your hair and tensed up, his mouth curving into an "O" as he released shaky breath after shaky breath. Eventually you get into a rhythm of bobbing your head, your hands stimulating him simultaneously. It didn't take long before you felt his hot seed shoot into your mouth, grunting as you took it all, moving your head up and down him. Cliff's eyes rolled to the back of his head as he tilted his head up from the intense pleasure.

"O-Oh /fuck/…" he cried softly as he started unconsciously thrusting his hips into you instinctively, riding his release. You felt your throat clench around him as he practically shoved his cock right down your throat, your eyes shutting tightly, the taste of him lingering in your mouth as you swallowed all of him.

Once he stopped, you pulled away and panted softly, face heated, your sexual drive still very much turned on. Your eyes glanced over to the tape recorder, which, apparently recorded everything from what you were seeing from where you were standing. Moving towards it, you stopped it, glancing at your lover with a dazed and tranced look.

 

"This stays between us"

 

 


	3. Grass + Ass

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cliff takes you on a surprise date.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AS OF 13 JUNE 2019, SPACE CADET IS PERMANENTLY DISCONTINUED. THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR SUPPORTING THIS PIECE OF WORK AND IT SADDENS ME THAT I WILL NOT GET TO SEE IT FINISHED. I HAVE HAD A LOT OF FUN WRITING THE CHAPTERS THAT I HAVE WRITTEN, HOWEVER, I CURRENTLY DO NOT HAVE THE WILL NOR THE TIME TO REALLY CONTINUE THIS WORK. 
> 
> I will however keep it online... There just won't be any more chapter additions to the story.
> 
> *̶*̶ ̶I̶ ̶w̶a̶s̶ ̶r̶e̶a̶d̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶C̶l̶i̶f̶f̶'̶s̶ ̶b̶i̶o̶g̶r̶a̶p̶h̶y̶ ̶b̶o̶o̶k̶ ̶"̶T̶o̶ ̶L̶i̶v̶e̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶D̶i̶e̶"̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶h̶e̶ ̶l̶i̶v̶e̶d̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶a̶n̶ ̶a̶p̶a̶r̶t̶m̶e̶n̶t̶ ̶w̶i̶t̶h̶ ̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶f̶a̶m̶i̶l̶y̶,̶ ̶n̶o̶t̶ ̶a̶ ̶h̶o̶u̶s̶e̶,̶ ̶s̶o̶ ̶I̶'̶m̶ ̶g̶o̶n̶n̶a̶ ̶g̶o̶ ̶b̶a̶c̶k̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶p̶r̶e̶v̶i̶o̶u̶s̶ ̶c̶h̶a̶p̶t̶e̶r̶ ̶s̶o̶m̶e̶t̶i̶m̶e̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶c̶h̶a̶n̶g̶e̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶s̶o̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶i̶t̶'̶s̶ ̶a̶c̶c̶u̶r̶a̶t̶e̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶C̶l̶i̶f̶f̶'̶s̶ ̶l̶i̶v̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶s̶i̶t̶u̶a̶t̶i̶o̶n̶.̶.̶.̶ ̶I̶'̶l̶l̶ ̶g̶o̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶r̶e̶ ̶s̶o̶m̶e̶t̶i̶m̶e̶ ̶s̶o̶o̶n̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶m̶a̶k̶e̶ ̶a̶ ̶m̶i̶n̶o̶r̶ ̶t̶w̶e̶a̶k̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶s̶t̶o̶r̶y̶.̶ ̶*̶*̶ (done and done!)
> 
> I can't believe it's been over a month since I've posted a chapter update... I'll try to post them a little quicker. This chapter didn't really flow as seamlessly nor effortlessly as the previous two... Mainly because my work and school schedule have been so crazy that I don't really have a lot of time to myself... 
> 
> That being said, I hope y'all enjoy this chapter. The longest one yet.

Thankfully there was no school the next day after what you did with Cliff yesterday, which managed to continue to linger in the back of your head… I mean… How could you not remember yesterday? Your boldness to be provocative, and him behaving the way that he did… It turned you on just thinking about it, if you were being quite honest. Pushing the thoughts aside for what felt like the 100th time today, you found yourself sitting on the porch of your house, late afternoon, bored out of your damn mind. In an attempt to switch your thoughts elsewhere, you start putting together a mental checklist: You already finished all of your homework.. You already studied… College apps had already been turned in for a while now, so all of the things that made high school stressful were gone and you didn't need to worry about them any longer. Projects were done... you already practiced your music for jazz band... memorized choir lyrics...

 

Yep, you were very much done with everything as of right now. Which, as a high school senior, was was very impressive, since senioritis had been striking everyone else in your class.

 

After gracing over those agendas, your mind slipped back to Cliff… You weren't sure if it was because of the act that you did for him yesterday, or actual, legitimate feelings that you had for him buried deep down inside. Or both... You had always loved Cliff, if you really had to think about it. From the day that he approached you and your family when you moved into the house near his apartment complex, to rolling around on skateboards around the neighborhood, learning the best tricks to out-do each other, to jamming out to music on your father's turntable, to playing in your garage in elementary school with some household objects, conducting each other like a one-man symphony. Your mind continued to surf through various memories that you had with Cliff, and as you sat there and thought about it, you didn't necessarily have any negative memories with him… Aside from his mother kicking you out of the apartment for being too loud… Or maybe him dating other girls around you, but not really potentially seeing you as a match… No, you really didn't have any bad memories with Cliff; all of the memories that you had were wonderful, pleasant… Such an easy guy to be around… Physically, spiritually, emotionally… Cliff was the definition of what you sought after in a partner… Inside and out.

   **(Interstate 238 coming from Castro Valley)**

  **(Interstate 880)**

**(Highway 17)**

You continued to comb through memories, remembering a recent one where you and Cliff almost got arrested, and how the only reason you got away was because you gassed it on your bike… You had just turned 16 and had recently passed your motorcycle test and acquired your motorcycle license. You had both been smoking pot together at night in a park in Castro Valley as a celebratory moment, not thinking much of it, when all of a sudden, you heard sirens wailing. You both did see some people who probably would have called the police on you both that night... It was all a haze in your mind. Before you knew it, Cliff was clutching you tightly around the waist as you were being chased by a cop car, being shouted at to pull over through their speakers. While extremely high, you sped down highway 580 and onto the 238, speeding onto a ramp to merge onto 880 heading south towards San Jose, the cops slowly disappearing in the distance as they couldn’t keep up with you in their hot pursuit. In a stoner panic, not wanting them to follow you both, you got onto Highway 17 towards Santa Cruz, where you sped down the winding, redwood roads, avoiding all traffic. You remember asking Cliff if your license plate had been covered, but remembered that you didn’t have one yet on this bike… To your relief, although that could’ve been a reason why the cops were after you too... not just because of the weed that you were consuming that night… At that point, you ended up at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, where you and Cliff continued to smoke the rest of the weed that you had on the beach in the dead of night. That moment was probably the most exciting memory that you had… You remember pushing your custom-made bike to the limit, hearing it roar loudly as you weaved through traffic. The cops never chased after you again after that day… and you both were careful about where you decided to smoke from then on.

  **(Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk)**

For some reason, you couldn't help but think of that night very vividly… You weren't sure why, but it might have been because of the fact that you remembered cuddling against Cliff on the cold sand by the water, only the two of you on the beach together, riding your high like the push and pull of the waves ahead of you both. You decided to pick a spot away from the amusement park, and where you wouldn’t be seen upon first glance... So you were a bit ways away from where you had parked the bike that night. While he was cuddled up against you, his arm wrapped around your waist once more, relaxed this time, tension all gone from earlier's events, his face nestled into your neck, he started talking directly into your ear.

 

His words rang in your head.

 

“I love you.”

 

There was no hesitation, but his voice was lulled, and raspy.

 

“I'm way too high for this… but I love you…”

 

You could feel him stroking your hair like he did that night as he continued to confess those things to you… You were pretty sure that you were in denial about these words because of the fact that you were so stoned out of your mind to really remember it clearly… But you do remember him confessing these feelings to you back then… He just never brought it up again….

  
And neither did you.

 

Despite having known him for essentially your whole life.

 

You remembered falling asleep in Cliff's arms that night, waking up to the rising sun, and you both realizing that you had school in a couple hours. You both found yourselves on the bike once more, speeding off and somehow managing to get to class on time. You recalledsitting next to Cliff in your first class together and combing sand out of each others' hairs.

 

Reminding yourself of that moment once again made you laugh to yourself.

 

You tapped your foot once you stopped thinking about memories with Cliff, eyes scanning the lawn in front of you, and the empty driveway to signify that your parents were once again out of town. Your mother and father worked jobs that required them both to travel around the states, or even out of the country as well for conferences, which often times left you at home alone. When you were younger, your parents would drop you off at Cliff's house to spend the days or weeks that they would be gone since no one would be home to watch you. After all, your parents were really good friends with the Burtons, so of course they would look after you while your parents were out of town. They made sure that you were being taken care of and watched after, and you were grateful for that.

 

You whipped your head over to the left, where you heard the familiar humming of a car's engine… One that was distinct from the other cars that you have heard passing you while you were out here. A green Volkswagen bug made its way into the driveway, where your red-headed companion pulled up, blasting Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama” and got out of the car with the biggest grin on his face. “(Y/N), (Y/N)!” he called enthusiastically as he stood behind his car.

 

“What, what!” you responded in slight mockery,shooting up in surprise. “What is it!?”

 

He gestured for you to come closer. "Come'ere!"

 

You cocked a brow as you step towards the car. “What is it Cliff?

 

He gestured for you to open the passenger door.

 

Confused, and slightly skeptical, you opened the door, where Cliff gently grabbed ahold of your wrist and pulled you into the passenger's seat“Hold still.”

 

You do, as Cliff ties a bandana around your eyes, being as careful as possible. Crossing your arms with a frown, you hear Cliff closing the doors and driving off. “Why did you blindfold me?”

 

“Because I have a surprise, and seeing it would ruin the surprise.”

 

“Can you at least give me a hint as to where we’re going?”

 

“Oakland.” he responded vaguely

 

You scowled “I’m not gonna die today by crossfire bullets. Especially not after those teenage girls got shot at in West Oakland near the BART station.”

 

Cliff shook his head, knowing very well that you couldn’t see him, but proceeded to do it anyways. “Nah... We’re going somewhere a little nicer than the shady parts of town.”

 

You felt the wheels of the car bump and shake along the damaged gravel below, immediately noting that you were hitting a highway ramp. “580?” you ask as Cliff merges onto the freeway.

 

Gassing it and shifting gears, he responds, “Yeah.”

 

“The Oakland Zoo? Are we going to the Oakland Zoo?” you asked, throwing that suggestion out. "You know how much I love going there…"

 

“Nope. Somewhere a little nicer.”

 

“Nicer than the Oakland Zoo…? How about… the Port of Oakland?”

 

“That’s... a good guess, but no. Beautiful spot too. Our favorite smoking place.” He laughed softly, and you found yourself imagining a smirk on his face. “Even if you guessed right, I wouldn’t tell you, sweetheart.”

 

“Please tell me....” you whined in response, hoping to somehow convince him to tell you.

 

“Nah. It’ll ruin the fun. I ain’t tellin yah. You’ll have to see it for yourself.”

 

“You... do know that I can take this blindfold off myself, right?”

 

“Well aware, but I know that you won’t do it.” He seemed pretty confident about that response.

 

You heaved a heavy sigh. “You’re.. not wrong.”

 

He cranked up the music in the car and you found yourself singing along, trying to distract yourself from wanting to rip the bandana off your face. “Is it a beautiful place at least?” you found yourself asking.

 

“I’d say so.” There was a pause. “But not as beautiful as you.”

 

You scoffed and pushed him playfully.“I fuckin’ walked into that one.” You laughed as he joined you, driving a little faster now. “Have we been there before?”

 

“Possibly.”

 

“Is it up high?”

 

“You’ll see.” He grins. “Also depends on your definition of high.”

 

“Does this involve grass?”

 

“Possibly.”

 

“I hate it when you’re vague like this!”

 

You feel the car transition from being flat to slowly declining and shifting back up again.

 

“Highway 13....” you mumbled, trying to map it all out in your head by the sensations other than sight. The Bay Area is known for having a lot of interstate highways mapped all around, the 880 and 580 being the main ones with four to five lanes north and southbound.… Often times, you can use various highways to get to the destination that you're aiming for… Your favorite one to drive would probably have to be Highway 13, just because it was such a scenic road.Thick forests that surrounded two lanes for miles. with rolling hills across the road, It was one of your favorites to speed down on your bike to head over to Berkeley, or even Walnut Creek… Although, there wasn't really much to do in Walnut Creek aside from driving through it, you supposed.

 

 

Your thoughts were put to a halt as you hear the click of the tape deck as Rush comes out of the speakers.

 

Damn.

 

Of course Cliff was playing your favorite Rush album to shut you up. It all made sense.

 

“Hey! Just because you put on Farewell to Kings, doesn’t mean I’m gonna stop asking questions!”

 

Cliff reached for your hand and squeezed it, placing it over the stick. He began to hum out the bass part as soon as it kicked in, grooving along to the song.

 

“When they turn the pages of history, when these days have passed long ago… Will they read of us with sadness, for the seeds that we let grow? We turned our gaze from the castles in the distance! Eyes cast down on the path of least resistance!” you found yourself belting out along with Geddy Lee, feeling Cliff's hand squeezing yours affectionately.

 

“God I love it when you sing... Your voice is so versatile... You have the graceful and harsh tones, which means that you can sing anything your heart desires. Especially with that vocal range...”

 

You blush. “Thanks baby... " Cliff always complimented your singing, yet it was still difficult for you to take a compliment from him. You felt Cliff shifting gears as the car revved up to prepare for the steepest slope yet on this blind journey of yours. “It almost feels as if you’re driving up to the Oakland Conservatory.” you guessed out loud, since you still couldn't see.

 

“Man... You really know these roads well, huh? You drive around too much.” You could tell by the tone of his voice that he was impressed with your ability to name the roads off the top of your head like they were engraved into your brain.

 

“What? It’s what I always do... when I’m not around you. I find myself exploring... getting lost in all the backroads and country sides on my bike… since I don’t have any friends to hang out with… and I’m not as popular as you...” you mumbled.

 

“I wouldn’t really call it... popularity. People enjoy my company I guess.” Cliff didn't want to admit it, but he was quite the popular guy in your class. You recalled several girls trying to get him to go to prom with them, but he rejected all of them… Of course, now you understood why, but you really weren't expecting these turns of events… Especially the past 24 hours alone.

 

“They enjoy your personality," you commented. "It’s very easy to get along with you."

 

Cliff sighed with that. "I guess. But they're all assholes. I don't know if I want to talk to them after what they did to you the other week…"

 

You gave a heavy sigh with that. "Which time?"

 

Cliff gripped your hand tighter. "Well, Tommy thought that it was a funny idea to shove you into one of the gym lockers in the boy's locker room after class ended and left you there. I remembered waiting for you after the bell rang and got worried when you never popped back out… If I hadn't waited, who knows how long you would've been stuck there.. It was the last class of the day, after all."

 

You groaned with that. "That damn Tommy… I'd kick his ass if I could… But I don't want to start anything, not right now anyways…"

 

"And then there was the time that Jake handcuffed you to the pole outside and brought your pants down and blindfolded you, writing "FAG" on your forehead… Everyone had just gotten out of class and you were stuck out there, in your underwear and unable to do anything… Had to get the principal involved because we couldn't get you out of there…"

 

"I don't understand why you hang out with these people… They only cause trouble…" You recalled this incident very well, not really wanting to recollect it, as you remembered so many students laughing at your situation, and how… helpless you were to do anything. Cliff was there when they managed to get the handcuffs off of you, and he was there to support you when you shut down in complete embarrassment.

 

"It's not that I want to hang out with them, they just seem to glue to me like a magnet…. At least Jake's currently suspended for doing that to you…"

 

"We haven't even talked about Derek yet… I haven't forgiven Derek for vandalizing my first bike… Remember?"

 

"When he slashed your tires and spray painted a dick on the seat?"

 

"And the sides!"

 

"Fuck… Yeah, I remember that… I hope that never happens again, or he's in for a new one."

 

"And when Daniela placed a "PUSH ME" post it on my back and I got pushed down a flight of stairs?"

 

"It doesn't seem to end… that group has no excuse for treating you like that… And I'm sorry that I'm associated with them. If they continue to cause problems, then I won't be around them anymore… especially because I'm with you."

 

"You don't think they're gonna give us a hard time…?"

 

"Trust me, they will… I've always put my foot down in these situations, but this time, I'm going to make sure that it's clear that what they're doing is completely unacceptable. Especially because you're my parter. I can't let this behavior slide.

 

Cliff finally stoppedthe car and walked out, leading you out into the fresh air. You felt dirt and leaves beneath your feet as you shuffled to follow him, still blindfolded.

 

He led you down a long, dirt road, guiding you as he finally stopped and sat you down on a log. You heard him take out some sort of plastic bag, shuffling to get something prepared.

 

“All right. You can remove your blindfold.”

 

You did as he said and your eyes widened, focusing on the beautiful, scenic view of

the Bay Area from where you were. You absolutely LOVED this spot... and Cliff seemed to know that. “Is... this your definition of a first, legitimate date?” You asked as your eyes trail back to him, as he sits there, opening a giant ziplock bag of weed and grinding a couple buds in front of you.

 

“Yes. Yes it is. Anything I do with you that’s outside of what we normally do is a date.”

 

You shift closer to examine the buds he had in the bag. “Wow... That... That smells like some good shit.”

 

“That’s because it is. I just had to share it with the one that I love the most.”

 

“Awww, you’re too sweet, you sappy bastard.” You helped him roll up some joints as you gazed at him with a small smile. “Cliff... This is amazing. Smoking out here with you as the sun sets in the Bay... How did you know about this spot?”

 

“Did a little exploring on my own. Plus this seemed like a place you have been to,

or would have liked to have been in... And uh... The Oakland Conservatory is just up the road... I was thinkin’ we can go... after hours... and do a little exploring ourselves. What do you think, babe?”

 

You grin as you stick the first joint in your mouth. “That... sounds perfect. Love me some after hour fun.” Immediately as you say that, you blushed, feeling Cliff's eyes on you as he winked when your eyes locked. Your thoughts immediately whipped back to the night that you spent at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk after hours… All the fun that you both had that night…

 

Cliff took out a lighter and fired it under the joint in your mouth, which you look down at as you take a couple of puffs, inhaling it and blowing out a small cloud, passing it over to your boyfriend.

 

“Wow... That IS some good shit...”you grin happily. “Fuck... When was the last time we sat down and smoked together...?”

 

“It’s... been a while.” He took a drag and passed it back to you. “A week ago?”

 

You laughed in amusement at how such little time passed by, yet seemed like ages. “Man. That IS a long time.” You giggled and took a drag. “I miss this...”

 

“You miss us smoking or you miss me?”

 

“Cliff, I just saw you yesterday.”

 

“I was joking! You know what I meant.” He grinned as you continued to pass the joint back and forth until it was gone.

 

“Where the fuck didja get this from? It tastes different from any other strain we’ve had in the past...”

 

“I uh... It was given to me for free. I won a bet with Tommy.”

 

“Which was?” you start rolling up another joint.

 

“Which was if I get a date to prom, I get a free bag of weed.”

 

You roll your eyes. “That’s a lame way to get weed.”

 

“Hey. Weed is weed.”

 

“Yes, but seriously? Over prom?”

 

“Apparently so. He's the biggest dumbasses for handing it over to me... It’s his loss that he's missing out on this.”

 

“Fair point.” You stuck the joint between your lips and leaned forward as Cliff lit it again. “Prom’s next week... Then our grad trip to Disneyland... Then our final concert with the jazz band... Then graduation....”

 

“Then off to college...” Cliff nods as you passed the joint over to him.

 

“Yeah...”

 

“Did... you get accepted to the colleges you want to go to?”

 

“I did. All of them... I was thinking of heading over to Yale or Harvard...”

 

Cliff took a long drag with that, tapping ashes off the end. “East coast, huh...?” You could hear a little sadness in his tone. “That’s... really far away...” He exhaled as his eyes lookd from your feet to your eyes.

 

You nodded your head slowly. “But.... I think I’m gonna change my mind... 10 grand for one year...my parents make enough to scrape by, but not by much. I think I might just go to either Berkeley City College, Laney, or Chabot. Get a feel for what college is all about before deciding to go to a big shot one.” You gazed at Cliff with that.

 

He was mid drag when you said that, but he seemed... less sad with that statement. “Chabot’s where I’m going. Gonna study music there.”

 

“That’s what I thought I would do as well. Music studies...” You lean back as you’re handed the joint once again. “You... still want to be the “best bass player” for Scott?”

 

“Hell yeah I do. No question. I want to be the best bass player that I can be. I want to make him proud…"

 

You finished off the joint and stared out into the land below you, the high finally kicking in, and San Francisco in the distance looking extraordinarily beautiful., the Bay Bridge and Golden Gate Bridge shimmering gorgeously from the sunset's rays. Getting high with Cliff with marijuana was probably one of your favorite recreational pass times... and because you both smoked so much, you had a pretty thick tolerance for it all. “Well... Whatever you decide to do and wherever you decide to go, I will fully support you.”

 

Cliff smiled with appreciation. “Thanks babe... I appreciate that... Not that many people get to be as lucky as I am with you... You... really, honest to god believe in me...”

 

“Because I know you, Cliff. We grew up together... We have the same interests... Of course I’ll believe in you... because I know you’ll go on to great things. With... or without me in the picture...”

 

Cliff paused as he leaned in to peck you on the lips. “Baby... I didnt want to admit it before, but I’m incomplete without you... With or without us being in a relationship. You, being around me for as long as you have... You have a special place in my heart.. Please don’t forget that... I don’t have anyone else I can really rely on, except for maybe my parents and my sister... But i love and appreciate you. For everything that you have ever done for me”

 

You gave a small smile to him as you leaned in to give him a better kiss. “I’m too fuckin high for this...” you grumble as you pull away to take a nice, long drag from the joint. “I can’t take you seriously.” You exhale a small cloud as your eyes graze over him again for what felt like the 15th time in the past couple minutes.

 

“Neither can I” Cliff chuckled with that. “I wouldn’t want anyone else. I mean that.”

 

Watching the sun set, you find yourself sitting down on the dirt, back against Cliff with his arms around you. “One of these days, we’re never gonna see the sun set ever again... We’ll venture off to a further place, one that man will never comprehend until it’s too late...”

 

“That was deep... But true... Someday we will pass on from this life...”

 

“Which is why we have to enjoy it all while we still can.” You looked up at Cliff, who was now gazing down at you.

 

“I want to keep you in my arms... For the rest of our time on this planet... I want you... I want to cherish you, love you, and provide for you... Be your protector against it all...”

 

“Those sound like wedding vows...” you blush lightly, mind extremely foggy now at this point in time. "You're not gonna drop down on one knee on me are you?"

 

“I love you, (Y/N)... And I take it very seriously, because there is no one else I feel this way towards... I’ve always felt this about us. We just never really considered being together in fear of growing distant.” He shuffled his hand into his denim jacket pocket and glanced at you as he pulled out two boxes. He opened one of them to reveal a black skull ring with red eyes within the sockets, holding it out to you. "I don't have that fear any longer. Tomorrow's not promised… I mean, look at what happened to Scott… He died of a brain aneurism at the age of 16, (Y/N)… I'm not asking for your hand in marriage just yet… But… I am promising my love to you. I promise to love you unconditionally until we decide we are ready for that kind of commitment…. I will be yours until we're either hitched or until you no longer want me…"

 

“Cliff... I love you beyond comprehension. I’ll be yours until you want me no longer... or if we’re torn apart by the sweet caress of death…"

 

With that, Cliff leaned down and planted a loving kiss onto your lips, pulling away to pluck the ring from the box as you stuck your hand out for Cliff to place it on your ring finger. It fit perfectly, as if he knew exactly what your ring size was. He opened the other box to reveal a black and silver skull ring for himself, sliding it onto his ring finger, grinning as he began running his calloused fingers through your hair affectionately. You find yourself wrapping your arms around his waist as you continued to kiss him passionately.

 

“I’m... honestly never gonna grow tired of this... Kissing you... Becoming intoxicated by your love...” you mumbled, lips tingling from the sensation of him sucking gently on your lips.

 

“Me neither... Such a turn on, you are...” he stared into your eyes as he wrapped his thumb against your cheek, resting his hand against your face as he leaned in for another sweet kiss. “I love you... I love you more than you’ll ever know...”

 

“More than you know...” you start singing with a gentle smile falling on your lips.

 

"Always chiming in with a song reference," Cliff commented almost distastefully, but in reality enjoyed every second of the song references that seemed to flow through you so naturally and effortlessly.

 

"More than you know...Lately I find you’re on my mind… More than you know....Whether I’m right...Whether I’m wrong… I need you so, more than you know… More than you know....”

 

Cliff leaned in to kiss you between each phrase, your lips melding into his lovingly, your arms wrapping around his waist. You both tumbled off of the log and onto the grass below you, laying there as you continued to make out. Cliff's hands started to creep up beneath your shirt as his hands began to massage your breasts, his lips grazing over your neck. You found yourself starting to slowly gyrate your hips into his as he fondled your breasts with both hands, your own hands snaking down to the hem of his pants. You start to push them down as Cliff simultaneously began to peel the shirt off of you. You both tumble again, Cliff now on top of you, pinning both your wrists down to the ground as he kissed your nipples affectionately. You let out a soft moan, arching your back gently as Cliff continues to stimulate and play with them. He pulled away and gazed at you with lustful eyes. "Are you okay with this..,?"

 

You simply nodded your head, tilting your head to the side to reveal a soft hickey that Cliff left behind from last night. With that, Cliff leaned in to your neck once again and bit gently at the skin, causing a darker bruise and purplish discoloration, which made you groan a little louder with desire. You finally manage to pull his bellbottoms down, your hand cupping his bulge as he pecked down to your breasts once more, licking a tit in a circle, the other hand massaging your breas and flicking the nipple hard. You begin to stroke him gently against the fabric, moaning softly as he continued to play with your chest, pulling his underwear down enough for his cock to spring out, your hand wrapping around him and stroking him, causing him to moan loudly.

 

Feeling him pulling your pants down,, you spread your legs out as he positioned himself against your sex, his eyes locking onto you. "Is… this your first time…?"

 

You shook your head, eyeing him with fiery eyes. "No…It's not my first time… I wish it was though…

 

Cliff frowned with that comment. "Are you sure you want to continue…? We don't have to do anything that makes you uncomfortable… "

 

"I want you…" you simply stated, wrapping your arms around his waist. "We can talk about my previous experiences later… They weren't exactly the best of times… But… I trust you…"

 

He kissed your forehead affectionately. "I'm gonna take care of you, all right…? Trust me… Just… let know if you want me to stop… or if it isn't pleasurable…"

 

"I-I think I'll be fine… I trust you."

 

"Okay, babe…" He leaned down to lock lips with you once more as he slowly entered your sex, feeling him stretching you as you let out a desperate gasp, arching your back into him as he sunk himself into you. You cry out softly in pleasure, feeling the stimulant of arousal kicking in. He was a decent size, but because it's been a while since you've had any form of sex, it was going to take some getting used to. Your arms moved up behind your head as Cliff took the opportunity once again to pin you down with both his hands as he started to gently thrust at a steady rhythm.

 

"O-Oh fuck…" you whimpered in total pleasure, tilting your head back as he thrusted into you repeatedly, feeling your juices starting to flow, hearing his skin slapping into yours. You're extremely turned on by this now as he groaned along with you. "M-Mmm… babe…"

 

"So fucking tight… shit…" Cliff kissed you again, his hips grinding into you.

 

He pulled out after a couple thrusts and shifted back, his hands holding onto your thighs now as he spread you further apart, leaning into kiss at your clit, licking at your wetness, causing you to squirm and cry out a little louder. He seemed to take enjoyment in your lustful moans as he thrusted a finger into your cunt, hearing the slush of juice and the cries for more coming from your throat.

 

"B-Babe… I'm close…" you whimpered through your constant trail of moans as you started gyrating your hips desperately into his fingers for the friction. He grinned and started to thrust his fingers deeper into you, his lips sucking on your clit, tongue licking to stimulate you. for not just his enjoyment, but for your satisfaction. You screamed in release as you gushed heavily from your pussy, body trembling as Cliff moaned with you, lapping up the mess that he created.

 

After catching your breath, you sit up, gently pushing Cliff down, and leaning down to graze your tongue against his shaft, and around his tip. You began bobbing your head, mouth wrapping around him, stroking him with one of your hands to further stimulate him. You moan as he throbs in your mouth, going down until his cock hit the back of your throat, causing you to gag a little. His hands threaded into your hair as he pulled, you bobbing down faster on him. He moaned loudly as his cum ribbonned thickly into your mouth, swallowing it down as you took in his seed. The parts that didn't go down your throat dripped from the corners of your mouth as you pulled away, his dick springing out of your mouth. Cum continued to drip from his tip as you leaned in to lap it up clean.

 

You both pulled away and sighed happily, the sun now fully set as you panted. "Mm… That was… That was good…"

 

Cliff grinned. "Hell yeah it was…" He pecked you on the forehead. "I… Have an idea, that may or may not be stupid."

 

"Shoot" you replied out of curiosity.

 

"How would you feel if we broke into the conservatory and had sex everywhere without getting caught…?"

 

"That… sounds like a stupid idea, yet fun at the same time..And we have tobe very quiet."

 

Cliff starts to redress as he chuckled gently. "Oh trust me, with how I'm going to be treating you, you're going to have to try really hard to stay quiet."

 

"Who knew Cliff Burton was an extremely kinky guy?"

 

He rolled his eyes and kissed your lips once more."Come on, get dressed. We're going."

 

You dusted yourself off and followed Cliff back to the car, where he starts driving up towards the entrance of the building.

 

You followed him closely as he led you to a fence where you both climbed over, glancing around to make sure that the coast was clear.. On your way up to the building, you noticed that there were no cars around, which probably meant that there was going to be no one inside… But you wanted to be sure as you both snuck into the garden, glancing around at what was around you. Cliff gestured over to one of the buildings within the complex, approaching a door to see if someone was inside. When the coast was clear, you picked at the lock, letting yourselves in. There was a staircase that led up to the second floor of the building, and cases of space gear all around. You looked at the staircase and then over at Cliff. "Here. Right here." You pointed as you drop your pants down again, ass facing him as you bent down, leaning against the railing for the stairs. "Fuck me right here, baby… Don't hold back…"

 

"Don't gotta tell me twice." He stepped towards you, unzipping his pants as he positioned himself once again. He thrusted into you once more as you grunted, feeling him go at a hard, yet fast pace, hitting your g-spot with each thrust. You cried gently as you felt your wetness start to drip on the floor. "O-Oh fuck!" you whisper shout, bending down more, feeling your breasts jiggle to the beat of each rhythmic thrust.

 

Cliff pulled out and slapped your ass to finish off, pulling away as he stroked himself. You grinned as you fold up your pants, leaving them at the side of the stairs, leaving you with just your top on, your nipples protruding the shirt. "Catch me if you can!" you giggled as you sprint up the stairs, hearing Cliff not too far behind you.

 

You glanced around once at the top, eyeing the various space-related items in their respective cases, as well as the informative plaques all around you. There was a hallway up ahead, which you walk towards, intrigued by the amount of knowledge about space travel that was around you. This hallway was surrounded by windows all around, and you couldn't help yourself as you looked up to the sky to trace the three bright dots in a row, noting Orion's belt. Because you were so captivated by the night sky, you didn't see Cliff right behind you, your whole body plastered to the glass as he pressed against you. You felt his hard-on against you as he wrapped his calloused fingers around your waist.

 

"Did you even try running? I caught up to you so easily."

 

"Maybe because I wanted you to catch up to me," you purred promiscuously as he gripped your waist tighter. In return, you wiggled your ass against him, which caused him to groan as he dipped into you. You moaned deeply as he, once again, started to slam into you, your face pressing against the glass window as the slapping of skin reverberated around. At this point in time, you didn't care if you were caught doing this, and Cliff didn't seem to care either. You let go, pressing your palms against the glass as he fucked you with each passionate thrust, causing you both to moan loudly."O-Oh my _god_! O-Ohhhh! _SHIT!"_ Your cries became desperate as his relentless pace seemed to get more and more intense. "Faster, baby! _Faster!"_ Just as you felt yourself getting ready for release, Cliff pulled out and turned you around to shower your lips with a deep kiss.You felt all the heat rush from your core to your cheeks as he made out with you, giggling as you pushed him away playfully. "You're really gonna tease me like that after almost making me come? Seriously?"

 

"If you want me to last the whole night… Yes."

 

You smirk as he peels your only article of clothing off, tossing it to the ground as you gazed at him lovingly. "I'm having the time of my life with you, babe…"

 

You both continued to prance around the conservatory, finding places to fuck all over the building, not hesitating to be extremely loud knowing for certain that there was no one around at this point in time… You found having sex in a public space to be an extreme turn on… Hell, if anyone was around, they would definitely have noticed by now, but knowing that you could potentially get caught brought an edge to this moment that thrilled you. Enjoying the private time that you had with Cliff, you finally gathered all your clothes that were spaced out amongst the building and walked hand in hand with him back out into the garden area. From there, you made out underneath the moonlit space, not a single care in the world as the wind began to howl in your face. Making your way back to the car, still very much undressed, Cliff popped a tape in, the beginning to "How Deep is Your Love" by the BeeGees playing from the speakers of the car, Cliff leaning in to kiss you once again.

 

_I know your eyes in the morning sun.._

_I feel you touch me in the pouring rain_

 

You felt Cliff's hands exploring your body once again as the song continued to play in the background. You giggled as certain spots that he touched with his tender, loving hands tickled. You attacked his lips affectionately as he leaned in to hover over you.

 

_And you come to me on a summer breeze_

_Keep me warm in your love_

_Then yousoftly leave_

_And its me you need to show_

_How deep is your love?_

 

You spread yourself before him as he positioned himself for the final time tonight, slowly pushing himself into you, being gentler than how he was earlier. It was the complete opposite of fucking like jackrabbits.

 

No.

 

This was him making love to you. A love that you never experienced before.

 

_I believe in you_

_You know the door to my very soul_

_You're the light in my deepest, darkest hour_

_You're my savior when I fall_

 

"Cliff…" you whimpered his name desperately as he kept a slow and steady pace, feeling the pleasure spike throughout the rest of your body. "Mmm... baby...." You squeezed your eyes shut as you tilt your head back in total bliss, one of his hands massaging one of your breasts, and the other remaining by your stomach, his thumb rubbing against your skin affectionately as he made sweet love to you.

 

_And you may not think I care for you_

_When you know down inside that I really do_

_And it's me you need to show, how deep is your love?_

 

"(Y/N)…" he called out softly as he kept his gentle rhythm. "(Y/N)… I love you…" his words sounded broken… as if there was a hint of sadness which confused you very much. Why did he sound like he was about to cry...? 

 

You looked up at him with loving eyes, watching as his own eyes teared up, yet he continued to push himself against you. "Baby…" You raise a hand up to brush the tears from his eyes. "Baby, what's wrong…?"

 

He stopped, completely sheathed in you as he leaned down and gave you a soft kiss to your lips, resting his face into the crook of your neck. "(Y/N)…. I… This… Us… Our love… it's beautiful… It's pure… It's a love I never thought I could ever find… But I found it in you…" 

 

You wrapped your arms around him and squeezed him tightly. "Cliff…"

 

"You make me very happy… And I hope that I do the same for you…" He pulls away to gaze at you, giving a genuine smile. "This is the truth about love that I never thought I would understand for myself… I always thought that sex was about pleasure.. Control… Desire… Domination… But… Sex, especially with you, is much more than all that." He pressed a kiss to your lips once more as he slowly started to gyrate his hips again. "I love you, (Y/N)… Please don't forget that..."

 

You wrapped you arms around his neck as you gazed into his eyes lovingly. "I don't think forgetting that you love me is even possible... I love you to the moon and the stars, Cliff.. That'll never change." You moan loudly as he began to thrust a little harder, despite his slow pace. "Please... I'm close babe... I need you  _so_ fucking bad... Please..." 

 

With that, Cliff started to pick up the pace as he slammed his cock inside of you at a rougher pace.

 

"Oh, oh, OH! M-MMM! FUUUUUCK!" you wailed as you felt his hot seed burst inside you moments later, your head tilting back as you screamed in total bliss, eyes rolling to the back of your head as Cliff rode his orgasm. "Ohhhh... Ohhh my  _GOD!_ Ah! Ahhh! AAAAAH!"

 

Cliff started to slow down as you both panted heavily, your body trembling from the pleasure, sweat beading your forehead. You both laid their motionless and naked, cuddling in the back of Cliff's car in the dead of night. Eventually you both fall asleep to the synchronization of your breathing, Cliff's arms wrapped around you as he spooned you in his small car. 

  

You didn't think your love for this man could grow any more than this. 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As a visual person, I decided to try adding photos to accompany the visual of describing places to give y'all a better sense of what the Bay Area looks like/how it is. Let me know what you think of that as well as what you think of the story so far!


	4. Good to Know that She's All Mine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The next morning, you find yourself entangled with Cliff in the Bay Area hills, jumping two weeks later for prom night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AS OF 13 JUNE 2019, SPACE CADET IS PERMANENTLY DISCONTINUED. THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR SUPPORTING THIS PIECE OF WORK AND IT SADDENS ME THAT I WILL NOT GET TO SEE IT FINISHED. I HAVE HAD A LOT OF FUN WRITING THE CHAPTERS THAT I HAVE WRITTEN, HOWEVER, I CURRENTLY DO NOT HAVE THE WILL NOR THE TIME TO REALLY CONTINUE THIS WORK. 
> 
> I will however keep it online... There just won't be any more chapter additions to the story.  
> Chapter based on Black Sabbath’s “Sabbra Cadabra”, the fourth track off of Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. I’ve been listening to this song continuously for the past couple days, inspired to start this chapter off with it. I’ve grown to enjoy the original more than Metallica’s cover off of Garage Inc... Still love both though!

**A/N:** Couldn't pass up this shirt when I saw it hanging on a rack at a store the other day... So I bought it, because it made me think about this "Space Cadet" series that I'm freewriting just for the heck of it. I promise that the reasoning behind the title of this fic will come soon, in a future chapter somewhere. 

Until then, I hope you enjoy this chapter. I plan to continue to pump out more content on a weekly, potentially twice a week basis, as I want to get the ball rolling in terms of Cliff post-high school and eventually being with Metallica. I hope the quality of the chapters I write don't falter through this... However, this is all for fun, and as a stress reliever for me... 

Also, yes. That is a Metallica bootleg featuring Cliff on the cover that I'm using to cover my face. 

Let me know what y'all think! Hope you enjoy. 

 

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

At the crack of dawn, you woke up to the gorgeous view of the Bay Area below you, eyes trailing groggily to the glimmering sea and city beneath the rays of sun that were peeking its way from the hills behind you. Your whole body ached from the activities that you entangled yourself in with Cliff last night, grinning stupidly to yourself at how wonderful it all was. You hoped that you’d do it all over again... And again…. And again…

 

 

Damn.

 

You weren’t gonna deny just how kinky you really were.

 

You shifted over to the front seat, still very much naked, but not a care in the world as you turned the key to the car, pulling out a tape from Cliff’s tape bin, eyeing the “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath” album with a smirk. You had just the perfect song to wake your baby up.

 

Cliff was snoring gently in the back seat, back against the door to his Volkswagen, peaceful, mouth slightly ajar. He shifted when you moved away from him, but didn’t pull you back to him, too knocked out to really notice. You grabbed the pencil that was placed in the tape box and started winding the tape to the song that you wanted, seemingly having the length of tape memorized in your head. You popped it in and shut your eyes, cranking the speakers up to play the lead in to “Sabbra Cadabra”

 

Your head turned to Cliff, who shot up fast at the sound of the song, eyes wide as Tony Iommi shredded his guitar to the beat. “Feels so good, I feel so fine, love my lil Cliff-y, always on my mind!” you belted as you grinned dumbly at him, leaning in to peck a quick kiss to his forehead, the man still completely dazed from slumber. “He gives me lovin' every night and day! Never gonna leave him never goin' away!”

 

Cliff smirked at the lyric changes as he pulled you into the backseat, right into his lap.

 

“Someone to love me, you know he makes me feel all riIIIIGHT!” you cried out in instant pleasure, rather than just belting out the part, as you felt him start massaging his fingers over your valley, the pads of his fingers running over your clit in slow, circular motions. “Someone to need me... love me every single night!” You move your hand down to stimulate him in return, grinning happily as your utter desire for him burnt passionately to the song.

 

He grinned at your reaction and moaned softly when you wrapped your hand around him as he started to dip his fingers into you. “Feel so happy since I met you, babe, when we’re makin’ love it’s somethin outta this world!” he sang along, in the theme of changing the lyrics to fit you both. “Feels so good to know that you’re all mine... Gonna love my baby till the end of time...”

 

He grunted as he slowly sank into you once more once his dick was hard enough to. As Cliff fucked you roughly, the song's lyrics rung loudly in your head.

 

_Feel so good, I feel so fine_

_Love that little lady always on my mind_

_She gives me lovin' every night and day_

_Never gonna leave her, never goin' away_

 

You throw your head back and cry out loudly, the pleasure sparking through your body as Cliff continued to pound his cock into the depths of your cunt, his hands squeezing the sides of your stomach as you both continued to make noises of total pleasure.

 

_Someone to love me_

_You know she made me feel all right  
Someone to need me_

_Love me every single night_

 

As he continued to make sweet love to you, you found your hands trailing up Cliff's chest, wrapping around his neck as you both made eye contact, fucking to the rhythm of the song that was continuously seeping through the speakers.

 

_Feel so happy since I met that girl_

_When we're making love it's something out of this world_

_Feels so good to know that she's all mine_

_Gonna love that woman til the end of time_

 

"O-Oh fuck! Cliff… Babe…!" you squealed as you gyrated your hips into his own, crashing against each other with full, passionate thrusts. You pressed your hands onto his chest to stop him as you shifted in the cramped, back seat. It sorta sucked that Cliff was tall in comparison to you and in comparison to the size of his car. You stopped him midway through fucking you because of how uncomfortable and cramped you were starting to feel. You found yourselves tumbling out of the car all together while you climbed on top of Cliff as you sunk onto his cock, riding him this time around as you kept a steady rhythm with loud, pleasurable moans. Your breasts bounced along with the rest of your body as Cliff wrapped his hands around your waist, guiding you down onto him with guttural groans. You both had no care in the world on who could drive past you at this moment in time, skin-on-skin slapping against each other with each movement.

 

_Someone to live for_

_Love me 'til the end of time_

_Makes me feel happy_

_Good to know that she's all mine_

 

You continued to release cries of pleasure as you felt Cliff hitting your g-spot frequently as you rode him. Cliff gently rolled you onto the grass, mid-fuck as he pinned your thighs down into the missionary position, drilling away at your pussy.

 

_Lovely lady_

_Make love all night long_

_Lovely lady_

_Never do me wrong_

 

You let out a blissful howl as you felt your own juices spill from within your pussy, your whole body trembling as you came hard against his cock, contracting around him, which caused Cliff to groan loudly, slamming harder into you.

 

_I don't wanna leave ya…_

_I never wanna leave ya…_

Anymore…

No more…

 

You pant heavily as you continued to moan, Cliff still fucking you raw, in anticipation for his own release. You gestured for him to stop so that you could push his bare back onto the ground, leaning down to suck on the tip of his cock, your eyes locking with his as he gazed at you with total, passionate lust in his fiery eyes.

 

_Lovely lady_

_Mystifying eyes_

_Lovely lady_

_She don't tell me no lies_

 

You bobbed your head quickly up and down his shaft, your hand feeling up and down his chest, almost as if to memorize his skin while you sucked on his love.

 

_I know I'll never leave ya_

_I'm never gonna leave ya anymore_

_I said no more_

 

You moaned deeply as his cum streamed into your mouth, cleaning him up as you swallow all of his seed, trying not to leave a mess behind. You gently bobbed your headwith a gentle moan leaving your throat, pulling away to suck at the tip to clean anything that remained, pulling away as your eyes looked up at Cliff lovingly.

 

Face completely flushed, and sexual desire finally dropped down, Cliff leaned in to place a kiss upon your lips. A kiss that felt more than just his libido.

  
Love.

 

His love for you was put into that kiss, which was a fairly long one at that. You felt as though your lips were attached to each others and wasn't going to let go anytime soon. Eventually you part lips as your eyes raked over Cliff's body, and his your own.

 

"Makes me feel happy," Cliff sang softly in the tune of the song that you had blasted for him in the car, which had long since stopped blasting music. "Good to know that you're all mine…" There was a gentle smile on his lips. A smile that was genuine and full of emotion for you. You recall that the eyes are the windows to the soul, and if you had to read Cliff's eyes, it would be that his soul was passionately burning for you. Everything about you, not just the sexual bits. This guy was madly in love with you, through and through, and you could tell just by looking at him that all he wanted was for you both to remain together and to be in each other's company… Cliff wasn't just in it to get some.

 

"Someone to live for…." you sang back. "Love me till the end of time…"

 

Cliff inched closer to you as he wrapped his arms around your waist and kissed you sweetly, pulling away to gaze at you. "We promised, remember?"

 

Your eyes glanced down at your skull ring before gazing at your partner. "How could I forget?"

 

"I love you,(Y/N), beyond my own comprehension… And not just because fucking you is fucking phenomenal… No… I love you past the wonderful-ass sex… More for just your looks… I love you for all fo you. No aspect of you left behind, sweetheart."

 

You blushed. "Same goes for everything that I view of you, babes… Our whole lives of us being around each other… I can't see myself without you… We've been intertwined since birth, and nothing's ever gonna change that…"

 

Cliff kissed you once more. "I can't see myself without you either.."

 

You wrapped your arms around him tightly, nuzzling your face into his bare chest, shutting your eyes. "Babe... I wish we could just stay out here and fuck around a little more… But… We should probably head back to my place to clean up… Yeah…?"

 

Cliff sighed softly as he planted a kiss to your forehead, his thumbs brushing over your bare stomach, which sent butterflies sporadically flying around within you. "Yeah… Let's get going."

 

You found yourself tossing your clothes on and climbing into shotgun as Cliff seated himself in the driver's side, bringing the car back onto the road and down the steep, Joaquin Miller Road slope from the Oakland conservatory, watching as Cliff drove all the way down Lincoln Avenue towards 580.

 

"Not gonna take the 13?"

 

"At this hour? Hell no." Cliff laughed with that. "Hey, I'm the driver here. I decide where we get to go" he joked as he reached over to hold your hand.

 

"All right, all right, bigshot." You giggled as you leaned in to kiss his cheek, squeezing his hand. "Wherever we go, no matter where, I will be happy just to be with you, babe." You shut your eyes with that and leaned against the seat, your core completely and utterly sore from the roughhousing you've received within the past 24 hours."A bath sounds killer right now… I need to cleanse my body after all that fucking we did last night and this morning…"

 

Cliff snickered with that comment. "Trust me, a bath isn't gonna cleanse you of the shit."

 

You pushed him playfully with that "Shut up!" Your hand started to trail to his jean-laid crotch, feeling for him. "I'm a good girl," you purred.

 

"Oh, behave!" he chided as he returned your playfulness with a backhand to get your hand away from his slightly growing bulge. "I gotta last till we get home, at least… Unless you want me to pull over and fuck you on the shoulder."

 

"That would be very illegal, but mmmm that sounds fun."

 

"Don't test me."

 

"Don't hold back"

 

This interaction caused Cliff to snort, a laugh following as he sped onto the freeway to head over to your house. "We'll settle this when we get there."

 

Once Cliff pulled into your driveway, you felt a pick up of pace.

 

You both hopped into the shower together, where you ended up having really, really rough, yet slippery shower sex, trying your hardest to suppress your moans because Cliff's parents were next door from you. You wouldn't want them to hear that you were blatantly fucking like that, after all.

"O-Oh, Cliff… Fuck me _harder_!" you whined with need as Cliff fucked you doggy style, the shower's steaming water hitting your back while his cock was slammed forcefully into you. You both moaned deeply as he sheathed himself into you.

 

"Mmm… Your pussy feels so fucking good around my cock, sweetheart… Fuck… Wanna hear your sweet, sweet moans…" He thrusted himself into you as you whimpered loudly now, the pleasure growing in intensity with each thrust.

 

After he shot his load messily into you, you started to _actually_ cleanse yourselves, rinsing your hair with shampoo and conditioner, handing them over to Cliff after you were done using them, lathering the rest of your body in soap. "Fuuck babe.. Want you to fuck me again so fucking bad…." Your horniness level kept crawling up as the time in the shower passed by. You were both in there for so long that the water had turned cold, which became unpleasant to stand in.

 

The rest of the time at the house was honestly spent fucking, as your parents would be out of town for the rest of the day too, coming back tomorrow. Despite having taken a shower to cleanse, Cliff ended up fucking you in practically every room in the house, including your parents' room and the garage. Hell, you fucked in front of the sliding door that led to the yard, where your jet black, German Shepherd, Ace, short for the Ace of Spades, came up to the door to, unfortunately, witness you get fucked roughly by Cliff. When he started whining at your apparent pleasure, you pulled the blinds over the sliding door to shield him from the interaction as you pressed your hands against the glass, Cliff pumping into you relentlessly as you cried out in bliss.

 

Your pussy was so sore than ever before by the end of all of this that when you came for the last and final time during this session, you had to lay down, legs spread, Cliff eating you out. It was almost as if the erotic acts you were committing were never going to end, and the thought of walking straight was slipping from your mind. The positions that you both tried were pleasant and daring, which caused you both to experience a sensual high that you have never experienced in the past.

 

You came for what felt like the 50th time today in the past couple hours alone, your body trembling terribly from the pleasure that was instilled in you. Cliff and you ended up cuddling on the floor of your bedroom, kissing and being in each others' arms.

 

"Fuck… that… that was intense… Probably the longest sex, while still feeling fucking great, which is pretty fucking great in of itself… Fuck…"

 

Words…

 

What the actual _fuck_ were they?

 

You couldn't even form them well at this point, your grammar turning into a pile of mush, like the rest of your presentable body.

 

Cliff grinned as he cuddled into you happily. "I'm surprised I was able to last this long…. I was edging terribly as we did al that… Fuck.. Your pussy felt so damn good… So damn tight…. Sex with you just continues to blow my fucking mind…. Dunno how you do it."

 

You giggled as you kiss him once more. "Love you…"

 

"Love you too, babe…" He shut his eyes and sighed gently. "Dunno if I'll be able to walk after this…."

 

"Heh…" Cliff chuckled as he nestled into you. "That was the point…"

 

You both laid there together on the floor of your bedroom, in each other's arms, both exhausted from the physically intimate activities that you decided to participate in.

 

For the past several years, all of this was a wet dream for Cliff, and it had now become reality… He didn't want to fully admit it, but he did have hot, steamy dreams of you more times than he could count, and he would always wake up to the dissatisfying reality, which was that you were way out of his league and that you only saw him as a really close friend.

 

It relieved him to know that you were now together, as he always wanted and dreamed of being.

 

Little did he know that you had the exact same feelings as he did, and for the past 17ish years, you remained close friends without pursuing said feelings…

 

Until now.

 

Now, at this present moment, it all felt right.

 

Everything fell into place.

 

All was for the best.

 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

 

"All right you two, smile!"

 

A blinding flash occurred as Cliff's father took photos of his son and his prom date.

 

Two full weeks had gone by since Cliff and you promised yourselves to each other. It was mid May now, and today was your special night.

 

You didn't think that it was possible at all for you to fall further in love with Cliff, but it happened. The past two weeks with this guy, not just as your close friend, but as your partner in crime, your lover, have made you both inseparable. There was not a moment where you weren't spending time together. During class, you couldn't help but stare into each others eyes, lost in the gaze while your teachers taught the lesson. At least, _when_ you had class together. You, luckily, had most classes together, which made senior year at least a little more bearable… You both studied together, not getting distracted by your love for each other, and you both prepared each other for your final exams that were coming up after the senior grad trip to Disneyland… Which, you were the most excited about for damn sure. You always enjoyed amusement parks, and both your parents would bring you both to the ones that were around the area… Great America, Six Flags… But going down south to Anaheim to go to Disneyland was probably your favorite amusement park of all time. So much to do, and the last time you were there was probably middle school on some band trip… You remember pairing up with Cliff to go on all the rides together, almost running late for the band performance that brought you there in the first place… 

 

That was fucking wild.

 

Everyone in your classes seemed to notice that the loser was hanging out with the "popular" kid, but the both of you didn't give a shit at all whatsoever. They could stare, comment, talk shit all they want, but that wouldn't affect your love for each other. A love so pure and wonderful, and one that you never felt in anyone else in your life ever before. Neither did Cliff, which was what made this all so special. Plus, you were certain that you could kick all their asses, you just chose not too out of self-restraint and… not getting suspended from doing anything fun, like prom night, grad night, and graduation… It wouldnt be that worth it, although it definitely would be satisfying.

 

You both were wearing black denim vests, with white dress shirts, blood red ties on both of you. Cliff was wearing some ragged pair of black jeans and some biker boots. You wore black, leather tights that hugged your ass well, as well as your black combat boots with the silver buckles. You both wore bracelets that had studs and spikes on them, your promise skull rings also on your hands.

 

Both Cliff's parents and your own were standing side by side, taking pictures of you both in this moment. You blushed as you hold Cliff's hands, leaning up to kiss him just for your parents' photo taking pleasure. You posed one last time, Cliff's arm around you as you held up both your hands to reveal the skull rings to them.

 

"Is… that what I think it is?" your mother asked as her camera falls to her side.

 

"No, we're not engaged" you mumbled with a smile. "We're… We're promised to each other." You gazed up at Cliff with that, who lovingly returned the gaze.

 

"Yeah. (Y/N) and I are promised until we decide we're ready for the next step. I hope that's all right."

 

"Are you kidding?" your father chimed. "Cliff, your parents and I always talked about the possibility of you two getting together… So seeing it become a reality, _finally,_ is news to my ears for damn sure. I'm happy for you both. Plus, you make our kid extremely happy… There's no other person I would want my kid to be with. Right hun?"

 

Your mother smiled, through tears. "All we want, (Y/N), is for you to be happy with the person that you're gonna be with, hopefully, for the rest of your life… You're still young, but the love and appreciation you have for Cliff tramples over all others… I hope for the best for you both."

 

Cliff's mother, Jan, is also in tears. "Go, you two. Enjoy your night! Don't keep us here any longer. Be safe." Cliff's parents step toward you both to hug you as your parents do the same, entangling you all in one, big, group hug.

 

"Be responsible, and don't party too hard." Your father commented as you guide Cliff over to your bike.

 

"Thanks dad…"

 

You hopped onto your bike, tossing your helmet on as Cliff does the same, wrapping his arms around your waist as you throttled loudly, speeding off onto the streets.

 

(The ramps to the bay bridge that I always found confusing)

(A good representation of how busy this toll gate is, and how much money they could make off of a $4 toll)

(Ah yes, the Bay Bridge. The old one, anyways, which would be accurate for this fic's time period) 

Cliff held on tightly as you merged onto the freeway towards Oakland and San Francisco as you blasted music loudly through the speakers, singing along gently as you weaved through the traffic into the fast lane. Once you hit the ramps to head into the city, you took the San Francisco one headed towards the Bay Bridge toll gate, gunning it down the road and through the toll, paying the amount requested, and getting onto the historic, San Francisco bridge into the city towards your prom venue. Cliff was glancing around as he held onto you, since it was too loud on the bike to really hold a conversation… as much as he wanted to talk to you. You found him massaging his fingers against your abdomen, absentmindedly it seemed… You didn't mind, as it was comforting as you zipped through all the cars that were in front of you, taking your exit as soon as you were able to.

 

Your eyes landed on the Julia Morgan Ballroom building, which was already filled with people trying to file in with their dates. You found a spot to park your bike on this crowded street as you got off, helmet in one hand, Cliff's hand in your other. You tousled your hair to spike it messily back up as you both approached the building together, smiling gently to yourselves. You both were big musicians… But dancing…? You weren't too sure of. You entered the building and found a table to set your helmets down, glancing around at the beautifully elegant building that you found yourselves in. People were already starting to dance to the music being played on the speakers.

 

"What didja wanna do first, hun?" you glanced at Cliff, who seemed a little overwhelmed with this all…

 

"Uh.. Let's… walk around and see what's going on…?" he nervously asked you, trying to give you a small smile to reassure you that he was okay.

 

"Sure." You still felt that wave of unease with him though, and squeezed his hand comfortingly. "It'll be okay, Cliff. We'll have a good time tonight."

 

That gesture alone seemed to help ease off some of his nervousness.

 

You walked around the venue, gazing at how high the beautiful this whole place really was. It was a big venue, enough to hold more than just your class, which was nice considering that if the venue was any smaller, you'd feel cramped and claustrophobic. Your eyes caught the balcony where a professional photographer was taking photos. "You.. Wanna go take that photo now so that we don't have to worry about it later when that line's longer?"

 

"I'm down. Sure." Cliff grinned as he led you towards the photographer, but stopped you quickly. "Wait, wait! The boutonnieres! We forgot to put those on earlier!" He took the flowers out from his pocket, which were surprisingly still perfect despite being in his pocket this whole time.

 

"Well, we couldn't have put them on while on the bike, they would've flown away if we put them on before we left, remember?" You giggled at this, watching as Cliff placed the bright red boutonniere on your denim vest, you doing the same for him as you both walked in strides towards the photographer.

 

You both positioned yourselves on the stairs, Cliff one step above you, wrapping his arms around your front, which opted you to place your hands on his, accentuating the skull rings that were on both of your ring fingers. You do a couple different poses to just mess around with body placement. There was one where Cliff wrapped an arm around your waist and held you close, while you both held your ring hands out. You wanted these pictures to emphasize your promise for each other. There was another photo where you both pretended to hold guitars in your hands, the photographer catching you mid-headbanging.

 

You couldn't wait for these photos to develop and given to you at the end of the year.

 

After the photos were done, you walked over to the food area with Cliff, where you both grabbed a plate of delicious dishes, headed for your table. You fed each other whatever was on your plates as you grinned happily, both of you enjoying the moment.

 

Then it happened.

 

The beat of the drums and the intro to the iconic bass line of My Sharona blasted through the speakers, which caused everyone, including you and Cliff, to head to the dance floor to bust out the best moves. You were grinning as you and Cliff danced together in the silliest of ways… You admitted that you were not the best dancers, but you still knew how to have a great time. You shimmied over to him and smirked as you sang along as you laughed at what the both of you were doing.

 

_When you gonna give to me, a gift to me_

_Is it just a matter of time, Sharona? Is it d-d-destiny, d-destiny_

_Or is it just a game in my mind, Sharona?_

 

Cliff leaned down to kiss you with that, eyes locking with yours passionately.

 

"Wish I could just bang you here and now" he whispered into your ear.

 

_Never gonna stop, give it up, such a dirty mind_

_I always get it up, for the touch of the younger kind_

_My, my, my, aye-aye- whoa!_

_M-m-m-m-m-my, my, aye-aye whoa!_

 

You groaned with that as you leaned in to kiss him again. "Want you so bad, baby…"

 

"Dirty little minx.." he growled as he wrapped his arms around you, the song changing.

 

Immediately, all the dirty thoughts left your mind and you start banging your head to the beat of the song instead, laughing in amusement as Cliff joined you., his hair whipping around.

 

"You ready Steve?" you screamed along.

 

"Uh-huh" Cliff responded, swaying his body along to the song.

 

"Andy?" you called out with the song.

 

"Yeah" Cliff responded with a smirk

  
"Mick" you called for the last time

 

"Okay" Cliff grinned along with you.

 

"All right fellas, let's go!" you held Cliffs hands as you both started to spin around in a circle together, letting go as you twirled and headbanged to the beat of the song, Cliff joining as you both started dancing to it.

 

Cliff started singing along, "I see a man at the back as a matter of fact his eyes are as red as the sun! And the girl in the corner let no one ignore her, 'cause she thinks she's the passionate one!"

 

You howled with laughter as you both sung and danced wildly to the song, getting way more into it than the kids around you, who also let loose.

 

You practically tangoed with Cliff on this song, which was a style of dancing that you wouldn't expect to come out of this song, but it was all just for fun and games.

 

The rest of the night continued to be like that, you and Cliff seeming to enjoy tonight more than you thought you ever would for a school event like this.. You tirelessly kept dancing along and singing along to the songs that were played, throwing a couple suggestions after looking through the records that the man behind the music was using… You pulled out an Elton John record and handed it to him to drop the needle on a specific song.

 

"This goes out to all you starstruck lovers out there," the guy called out as he dropped the needle on the record grooves.

 

You started to slow dance with Cliff lovingly holding you, leaning down to kiss you. "What didja pick out, babe…?" Cliff gazed at you as you both heard the crinkle of the record being played. Your eyes stared lovingly into his as you started to sing along while you both slow danced.

 

"It's a little bit funny…" one of your hands brushed down his chest as you kept eye contact with him. "This feeling inside… I'm not one of those who can easily hide…" You fixed his tie a little, feeling tears well in your eyes as you continued to sing.

 

"I don't have much money…. But boy, if I did.. I'd buy a big house where… we both could live…" Cliff could hear the emotions welling out from your singing, his hand moving to affectionately massaging your back, listening to you sing while he intoxicatingly falls deeper and deeper into loving you… which he didn't think was possible.

 

"If I was a sculptor, but then again, no… Or a man who makes potions in a traveling show.. I know it's not much, but it's the best I can do… My gift is my song, and this one's for you…"

  
You felt Cliff brush the tears from your face as he had his own welling in the corners of his hazel eyes, kissing your forehead as he continued to listen to you sing this song over Elton John's voice. You and Cliff slow danced to this song that was making you emotional… A song that never really made you emotional in the first place, but now it had more meaning to you than ever…

 

"So excuse me forgetting, but these things I do… You see I've forgotten if they're green or they're blue…" Your eyes locked with Cliff's at that, a gentle smile creasing over your lips as your eyes grazed over every fine detail about his eyes that were just so beautiful to get lost in…"Anyway the thing is what I really mean… yours are the sweetest eyes I've ever seen…"

 

With that, Cliff dips you down and kisses you lovingly, his cheeks rosy as he was trying to hold back his own emotions. It had only been two weeks since you confessed your feelings for each other, but even so, your love for each other was always down below at the root of it all… Your souls knew before you really ever conceived of the idea…. You were both inseparable now… It wasn't just lust, like all the other kids around you. No. Sex was just another wonderful bit under the umbrella of both of your definitions of love. You both actually, genuinely cared for each other… It might have been because you both knew each other since childhood, but you honestly weren't too sure… Either way, you loved each other to the moon and back. You didn't care if they said that you were too young to really determine whether or not you loved each other like that. You and Cliff just knew…

 

You knew that you were meant to be.

 

 


	5. You're Still a Young Man, Don't Waste Your Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cliff and the reader find themselves at Lake Chabot in Castro Valley, California, reminiscing their childhood together at the exact spot that they are sitting at in the shadows of the night. This chapter takes place in four different moments, the first being at Lake Chabot, then jumping briefly to their Disneyland grad trip, up until graduation a couple weeks later, and then finally ending a couple hours later post-graduation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AS OF 13 JUNE 2019, SPACE CADET IS PERMANENTLY DISCONTINUED. THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR SUPPORTING THIS PIECE OF WORK AND IT SADDENS ME THAT I WILL NOT GET TO SEE IT FINISHED. I HAVE HAD A LOT OF FUN WRITING THE CHAPTERS THAT I HAVE WRITTEN, HOWEVER, I CURRENTLY DO NOT HAVE THE WILL NOR THE TIME TO REALLY CONTINUE THIS WORK. 
> 
> I will however keep it online... There just won't be any more chapter additions to the story.
> 
> Chapter title based on a song titled "You're Still a Young Man" by Tower of Power ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbfU2ZYb3NI ) . No smut in this chapter, but there will be smut in later chapters for sure. :) Hope everyone enjoys this chapter. I really sculpt and dig into the reader's relationship with Cliff in this one.

 

(Lake Chabot) 

 

_"Don't go too close to the water you two!" you heard Cliff's older sister call out as you and Cliff sprinted around Lake Chabot together, chasing after each other with your handmade fishing spears. "Remember (Y/N), Cliff can't swim!" Concern was prominent in her voice as you both ran across the water's edge, your feet splashing against the shallow water._

 

_"Betcha I'll catch a fish before you do, (Y/N)!" Cliff grinned, almost seeming like he ignored Connie's warnings, but just decided not to showcase that he heard his big sister._

 

_"Na ya aint!" you shouted back at him as you playfully splashed water at your red-haired friend, who did the same to you with no remorse. Your giggles filled the air along with the crunching of the sand beneath you as the sun began to set, which meant that the fish you were both trying to catch would come out from hiding._

 

_"My fishing pole's better than yours!" Cliff taunted as he chased you to the edge of one of the docks, feet drumming against the wooden surface, patiently waiting for something to breach the surface of the water._

 

_"Na it aint!" you taunted back. "Watch, I'll catch em first!"_

 

_"Not if you keep shoutin at me! Shhh! Be quiet! You're gonna scare them away!"_

 

_"Naaa, YOU be quiet!"_

 

_You laughed together as you settled down, standing together, side by side, eyes grazing at the water down below with deep concentration and silence, waiting for the opportunity to strike. If there was one thing about you both, it was that you both didn't fish like a normal person. In the most barbaric way possible, you would stab at the fish you were trying to catch, scoring the reels of the day through spears than through rods._

 

_SPLASH!_

 

_Cliff struck the surface of the water and pulled out a decently-sized catfish, grinning to himself. "GOT IT! A big one!"_

 

_You had struck the water at the same time as him, catching a decently sized bass, your spear piercing right through it like a live kebob. "GOT IT!" you screamed back at him as you both eyed your first catch of the evening._

 

_"Impressive!"_

 

_You both continued to giggle happily as you set the fish aside to try to catch some more._

 

Times were so much simpler back then…

 

 

You breathed in deeply as you leaned against Cliff at the same dock you were reminiscing to, sitting on it with him together, feet dangling above the water's surface. You recalled your childhood adventures every time you entered a familiar place, such as Lake Chabot, with Cliff. Your families often had day trips together, which exposed you both to each other more as kids, as well as the opportunity to get away from town and be one with nature. You recalled your tiny selves running around the lake's edge that you were staring at together with the man that you grew up with sitting beside you, his arm wrapped around you comfortingly, exploring the land together as kids, barefoot against the sandy coastlines of the man-made lake. Your fathers would be barbecuing, while your mothers would be laying underneath the cool shade of the trees, conversing among themselves. Cliff's older siblings were off on their own adventures, although Connie would cautiously watch you both from time to time to make sure that you weren't getting into trouble, being the protective older sister that she was… She was the one that was the most wary about you both, that's for damn sure. You were the only child to be produced from your parents, so Connie and Scott felt like your own older brother and sister…

 

Now, you were at the age of adulthood. An age that you both anticipated to be great when you were younger, but were sadly mistaken with a slap from reality. Adulthood was filled with unanswered questions, self doubt about the future, and worst of all, anxiety about failing at life. You felt Cliff wrap an arm around your waist, pulling you closer to him as he gave a soft sigh. "You okay, (Y/N)…? You're spacing out again." His tone was that of concern, mainly because he could see right through you and your failed attempts at hiding behind a mask. Cliff always caught you spacing out, and often times it worried him because of the fact that you found yourself getting lost within the depths of your complex mind. It was almost as if he sensed something was wrong with you internally, which, he was too proficient at for his own good.

 

You paused before answering, "Yeah… I'm okay, babe… Just.. wondering where the years went.." Your eyes trailed to the still water below you, which glistened in the twilight, sighing gently.

 

"You've been spacing out more and more lately… You… wanna talk about it…?" he questioned with concern laced in his voice, not taking your simple answer as a complete answer.

 

"I'm fine, Cliff…"

 

"Promise?"

 

"Promise…" you respond immediately, without much thought nor hesitation.

 

"That wasn't a very convincing promise… Be honest with me, (Y/N)… What's on your mind?"

 

You nestled against his chest before responding begrudgingly. "You're gonna keep bothering me about it…. So… You… want me to be honest…?"

 

"Yes." Cliff grumbled as he squeezed your waist against his arm. "Tell me what's going on in that head of yours." He loosened his grip before stating, "And of course I'm gonna keep bothering you about it… I love you,(Y/N), and it wouldn't be right of me to just let what's bugging.. well, BUG you… You mean the world to me, and I want you to be able to trust me…" He frowned before asking, "You… trust me… Right…?"

 

You puffed your cheeks with that. "Cliff, of _course_ I trust you…" You let out a deep sigh, trying to collect your thoughts in the most cohesive way possible without it sounding like a pile of word vomit. "I've… I've been thinking about a lot of things… My future, your future… where our paths will cross… if they even cross in the first place… Whether or not I'll be with you for the rest of my life or not… Where we'll end up in 10, 15 years… If we'll have kids… Death… All the wonderful, usual clusterfuck of overthinking stuff…"

 

"You lost me at kids." His hand trailed to your stomach, palm gently pressing against it. "You… think we'll have kids someday…?" You weren't sure if he was asking this to distract you from your own, nagging thoughts, or if he was asking you this in all seriousness. One thing was for damn sure, and that was when his hand was placed over your stomach, you felt your heart leap out of your chest and butterflies spreading around where he touched. You both had been hacking away at sex, mostly without protection, but you knew that you weren't pregnant… You had taken other birth control-type precautions to be completely certain about that.

 

"I dunno… I mean, with how much sex we've been having lately, it's a possibility," you noted out loud, which caused Cliff's lip to quiver as your eyes locked with his. "Do _you_ think we're gonna have kids…?"

 

"Do you _want_ kids…?" he questioned almost hesitantly, but he seemed to know the answer, yet was asking you straight up about it.

 

"Do YOU want kids…?" you rephrased his question right back at him.

 

Cliff paused before responding, "They… seem like a really, really big responsibility… I don't know if I would want them right now… But I do know that I would want one or… maybe a couple in the future… Yeah…?" He watched your face scrunch up after he suggested more than one child. You corrected your facial expression, replacing the slight disgust with a small smile as your mind started to drift again. You attempted to reel it back in towards the… semi-serious conversation you were having with your partner. "I'm… sure mini-Cliff running around will be a handful. Man, oh man, would it be adorable to see a mini-you running around… With your eyes… your hair… your… swagger."

 

"Or would mini-us have your eyes, your hair, and _your_ swagger? Can you imagine that?"

 

You chuckled gently. "Mini-us would be very cute… Definitely musically trained and talented nonetheless. They would take after you."

 

"More like take after _us_. Oh yes. Definitely, but only if it's a passion they want to pursue… Don't wanna force our kid to be like us."

 

"Would a kid want to even be like us in the first place…?"

 

Cliff looked up at the sky with that, contemplating his next words carefully. "I would want our kid to be their own person… To grow up organically and not forced to do one thing or the other… I would want them to be happy with whatever they do with whatever life throws at them…"

 

You huffed with that. "Speaking of kids…. Remember when we were kids? Lake Chabot was our parents' favorite spot to bring us… Dunno why. It's just a hiking trail looped around an artificially-made lake."

 

"A SCENIC hiking trail looped around an artificially-made lake," Cliff corrected you, sneering at his smart-ass comment.

 

"If you would call an artificially-made lake surrounded by hills and a patchy forest to be scenic. Plus the grass dries out during the summer time into that golden, yellow-brown, which makes it less scenic. It turns the hills into dead, fire-prone hills."

 

"Hey, it's more scenic than Castro Valley, that's for sure."

 

"Cliff, Lake Chabot IS in Castro Valley," you pointed out.

 

"(Y/N), Lake Chabot is more scenic than the _rest_ of Castro Valley. Plus, it's in San Leandro and Oakland too! Technically!"

 

"But you treat it like it's not part of Castro Valley!"

 

"I _just_ said that Lake Chabot is more scenic than the _rest_ of Castro Valley!"

 

"Blahhhh!" you spat. "We always argue over the stupidest shit. Why do you do this to me?"

 

Cliff shook his head and looked down at you with that statement. "I wouldn't really call this arguing, it's more like bickering… but…Yes. Yes we do, but it's amusing. Don't deny that."

 

"Bickering and arguing are basically the same thing."

 

"No they aren't."

 

"Yes they are."

 

"No, they're not."

 

"Yes, they are."

 

"Nuh-uh."

 

"Cliff. Bickering is when you argue over stupid, petty shit. Arguing is in its description."

 

Cliff repeated what you said and mocked you playfully, smirking when you gave him a completely unamused look.

 

"Stop it."

 

"Admit it."

 

"Admit what?"

  
"Admit it that us arguing over stupid shit is funny." Cliff grinned with that statement, his eyes never leaving you after this whole… clusterfuck of bickering that was driving you up the wall.

 

"It is," you respond with no hesitation. "It is, except, I feel like you purposefully argue with me out of enjoyment."

 

With that, Cliff raised his arms up, almost in defeat. "Damn. Caught me red-handed." He shut his eyes and sighed gently. "It's not that I… _like_ arguing with you… I just… I find it interesting how passionate you get over things… Like… just now, for example… how you defended Lake Chabot and what city it encompasses… Whenever you defend a point, you always put your whole thought process into it without even thinking about it…" he paused with that thought, before trailing on, "which is an oxymoron in of itself, but you just seem to effortlessly pull information from your head into an argument…" He paused before adding, "You're really, really, smart. That's what I'm trying to get at."

 

You were flattered that Cliff called you smart… You never really considered yourself to be smart… Practical, yes, always thinking one step ahead, but you never really put yourself in the category of "smart". You were smart in the sense that you carried a grade point average higher than a 4.0, straight As all across the board in all of your classes, including the rigorous, college-level ones… Cliff would help you study of course, even though he never partook in classes like that. He, himself, was a very intellectual guy, which was probably why you took interest in him in the first place… You found his intelligence to be extremely attractive…

 

Lost in thought once again, you snapped out of it and brought your mind back to the conversation that you were just having with Cliff.

 

"I think that's how I got away with bullshitting our government debate… I spoke my mind." You shook your head with a chuckle, remembering how your teacher put your and Cliff against each other… Probably in spite, because you were both really close friends…

 

"And you whooped my fuckin ass! Note, never be paired against (Y/N) in a debate because you are most likely going to lose against them. I didn't really have a choice in the matter, though… I was purposefully pitted against you by our teacher… Fuck." 

 

You chuckled with that. "But… seriously Cliff. I'm fine… I just… I never thought that we would ever be… here." Your gaze fell on the starry night above you, eyeing the constellations and naming them at the top of your head to yourself, grazing over the beautiful universe that was out there…

 

Cliff turned his head from the sky to look at you, while you yourself were locked onto the sky. "Here, like Lake Chabot here, or here like… us being in a relationship underneath all the stars, here?"

 

"Both…"

 

"Well… It has been a minute since we've physically been here… Actually, I think the last time we were here was before 6th grade. That summer before 6th grade when we had that fishing contest at dusk to see who could catch the most fish."

 

"Yeah… that sounds about right…" That was the memory that you were originally spacing out about moments ago.

 

"Hell yeah." He grinned. "Man… Life was so much simpler back then… Our parents would bring us to places like here and let us be free together… You were my only friend… Mainly because our parents were friends and we were forced to be around each other…"

 

"Yeah… I wasn't really a people person back then, and neither were you, but we always seemed to want to be around each other. Your sister would always be running around playing with the kids outside, and.. then there would be us, just the two of us, getting lost in our own adventures around the neighborhood."

 

Cliff held you tighter with that. "We were very reserved kids… Hell, I admit that I'm still very reserved… You were the only friend that I had for the longest time, and you were one of the only persons in my life that I actually wanted to be around, other than my own family… And even then, I wanted to be alone… locked up in my room, practicing music…" He shut his eyes and smiled as he reminisced about all the memories that you made together as friends, and how the future would look bright for the both of you. "You… were the only person who would either drag me out of the room to go run around Castro Valley together, or sit in my room with me and listen to me practice piano and bass… You'd get lost in the music with me, and you would sing along to it, even if you didn't know what I was playing at the time… You found ways to incorporate yourself into me practicing hours on end… Your company was, and still is, wonderful and enjoyable… I wouldn't trade you for the world… (Y/N), I've said it before, but I'm gonna say it again… I can't imagine my life without you in it. Wherever we go in the future, I hope our paths will be linear and we will be there for each other…"

 

"I'm sure they will babe… I'm positive that they will. I'm with you till the end of the line."

 

"As I am with you." He nuzzled affectionately into you as he leaned down to grace over your lips lovingly. "Our… bus to Disneyland leaves in a couple hours…. Think we should be heading out soon?"

 

"Possibly… But I can't get over how beautiful this moon is over the lake…"

 

"I can't get over how beautiful YOU are against the moonlight."

 

"Oh, shut up." You laughed as you playfully pushed away from him. "But seriously, we should head out soon or we'll miss the bus for our grad trip."

 

Cliff groaned at the realization. "Fuck…"

 

"Fuck…?" you questioned, slightly confused.

 

"Fuck me…." he grumbled in frustration, although you weren't really sure what the frustration was all about… But this statement was the perfect opportunity for a really, really terrible pun.

 

"Gladly," you respond immediately, in a joking manner of course. "I'm always up for another round." You knew that this context of "fuck me" was in no correlation to "fuck me" in the sexual term, but you still threw that out there anyways.

 

"No, not FUCK me, fuck me… Fuck ME my car's dead. Remember?"

 

You flinched with that. "Fuck… That's right…. Your Grasshopper broke down. Again. How could we forget about that…?"

 

Cliff glanced down at you with that comment, whipping out the small, empty ziplock bag that had tiny trances of weed in it. "This… probably was the culprit to us forgetting." He waved his small pipe at you as well. "We've been sitting in this spot for _hours_ , (Y/N)."

 

"Time flies when you're having fun," you comment, which was true considering that you were having the time of your life with your partner. Sitting on the dock of an artificial lake, smoking some grass, being in each other's company, riding your high together as you just cuddled against each other, reiterating how much you loved each other… All of this was something that only the two of you could do. Hell, when you got to this spot, there was still light out and the sun hadn't set yet… But now you were here, in the dead of night, stranded technically because Cliff's car broke down…

 

Your eyes trailed down to your wrist to stare at the time, following the hands that were barely visible underneath the moonlight, sticking your tongue out slightly as you read the time out loud to Cliff. "2:30 AM… It's probably gonna take us another 30 minutes to get to the car, _if_ we don't get lost first… And God knows how long to bring it back to life… Our bus leaves for Anaheim at 4 AM, babe..."

 

"So… we _should_ go, so we can figure out what's wrong with my car and get back to the high school to get on that bus…."

 

You groaned as you slowly stood up, wincing as your legs gave you a jolt of painful numbness, trying to keep your balance to prevent your legs from buckling up. "It's gonna be a bit of a hike to get back to where the car broke down… Fuck… Why didn't we just take my bike?" We would've been able to cut through the hiking trails on it and just park it right near the dock…"

 

"Because I wanted to actually bring you somewhere instead of you bringing me everywhere like you usually do…?"

 

"Cliff," you interject, "you _HATE_ driving, with a capital H."

 

"I know, I know, but if it's for you, I don't mind as much. My love for you conquers my hatred for driving. Plus, you being with me gives me less anxiety." 

 

You extended your hand out to Cliff to help pull him up off the wooden dock beneath your feet. "Come on, you sappy bastard. Let's go so we can figure out what's wrong with your car."

 

Cliff pulled himself up after grabbing a hold of your hand. "And if we don't figure out what's wrong?"

  
"Then we're stranded out here and we miss out on and completely wasted our money on the Disneyland trip?" You laughed and shook your head. "Seriously, let's go."

 

————

 

 

 

After hiking through the pitch black trails underneath the moonlit sky for what felt like hours but was most likely just half an hour, the both of you ended up where you came from, finding Cliff's Volkswagen parked on the dirt shoulder of Lake Chabot Road. Just where you left it… The biggest pain in the ass about his car breaking down had to be the fact that it broke down during the rigorous, winding road, which was at a steady incline. Not only that, but you had to sit in the driver's seat and direct the car while Cliff pushed the Volkswagen off the two-lane road and onto to the side that was the make-shift shoulder lane. Luckily there weren't a lot of cars around, because if there were, they would have definitely hit you… Cliff crookedly moved the car into the shoulder space because of how ridiculously strenuous pushing a car manually up a winding road was. Too much work… You would've helped him, but someone had to be in the driver's seat to steer the Volkswagen to where it needed to go… Especially with how intricate the road was. It wasn't an easy maneuver to get it off the road like that, because of it winding the way that it did.

 

 

In total darkness, both your eyes having adjusted to being able to see in the pitch blackness, you sat in the driver's seat once again as Cliff lifted the hood of the car to examine what was wrong. He whipped out a flashlight from the glove compartment inside and eyed the engine, trying to figure out why the car died. While his flashlight was out, you winced at the sudden bright light, shielding your eyes from the light source. Cliff didn't seem to notice, however, as he did a routine check of the battery, the oil, the coolant, although everything seemed relatively fine…

  
"Babe, try starting the engine" he called out to you as you turned the key, the engine sputtering and refusing to start. Cliff had you turn the ignition again a couple times before telling you to stop. "I think I figured it out!"

 

You patiently waited as Cliff started to tinker with the engine for a couple minutes before directing you to start the car again.

 

After a couple sputters, the engine finally roared to life, which was satisfying enough for your partner, Cliff shutting the hood as you shifted over to the passenger's seat, Cliff climbing into the driver's seat where you had originally been sitting in. "Thank god I was able to fix that… It was just a guess, but I guess after having to deal with the car breaking down so much, I knew what to fix…" he mumbled as he strapped the seat belt over him and you did the same.

 

"You need a new car," you commented. "With how often your car breaks down, you need a new one. This one's becoming extremely unreliable… You think everything's fine until it breaks down again and disappoints and frustrates you… Again… Seriously, we should stop by some of the car dealerships in San Leandro and see if we can replace this Grasshopper."

 

"Everyone keeps saying that. My car's not dead yet. I'll drive it to the ground before I even contemplate a new car," he retorted stubbornly, shaking his head in total refusal.

 

You shook your head with a sigh. "Your car has broken down on you so much in the past few weeks, hell, DAYS even, alone. You sure you don't wanna think about just getting a new one?"

 

"I'm sure."

 

"Cliff, maybe the reason you hate driving so much is because of the fact that your car keeps kicking the can every time you drive out of Castro Valley."

 

"Either way, driving is something that I will never end up liking.. with or without my bucket of a car. I'll get a new car when it's time to get a new one."

 

"Whatever you say, babe."

 

You left the conversation at that as Cliff drove back to the Castro Valley side of Lake Chabot, heading straight for the high school to catch the bus that would be carrying your class down to southern California.

 

Throughout the whole bus ride down, you stayed by Cliff's side, hand in hand, you on the window side and him beside you, walkman sitting between both your laps. You tried to distract yourself from the drive, which was going to be a whopping 8 hours… At most. You brought your rucksack full of tapes to listen to on the way down, an earbud in one ear and the other in Cliff's. You both would hum along and sing to it, encasing yourself in your own world where only the two of you existed in.

 

You went through what felt like everything.

 

Blue Oyster Cult, Foreigner, Iron Maiden, Misfits, Motorhead, Journey, Earth Wind and Fire, Stevie Wonder, The Police, Diamond Head, Judas Priest, Rush,Steely Dan, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Steve Miller Band, Bach, and Mozart, even.

 

Just to name a few.

 

The bus took quite a few stops at all the rest stops for everyone to stretch out there legs and get some fresh air…. But because you were being driven in a bus, you weren't going as fast as you'd hope… Luckily for you, Cliff was with you the whole time to make everything just a little bit more bearable… You were thankful that you had your partner through this because of how antsy being on a bus made you… It was one thing to speed around on a bike, another to be in the passenger's seat of Cliff's car, but an entirely different scenario to be placed on a bus with your entire graduating class… For the ones that could make the trip anyway…

 

You loved road trips, you didnt want to get that fact twisted… You just personally hated being crammed into a bus with a bunch of other people, mainly strangers, going through this journey down to southern California… If you had your way, you would've driven yourself, but you thought about your bike not making it down south… You were comfortable driving it around the Bay, but to Los Angeles…? Hell no… You had to tinker with your bike a little longer before you decided to make that trek. 

 

After several stops, you finally made it to the Happiest Place on Earth: Disneyland. You excitedly exited the bus to start exploring with Cliff, your tickets for the both of you in your hand, the other holding Cliff's as you both took big strides towards the gates before the rest of your classmates could. Today was going to be special, because the park was going to be open from 9 PM until 2 AM just for your class! You had no idea how your school was able to afford that… But you didn't really question it as you both showed your tickets at the fare gates, getting a special wristband with a stamp on your hand that stated "CONGRATULATIONS CLASS OF 1980" with Mickey Mouse. You thought that was pretty cool.

 

All of this was really cool.

 

 

You held Cliff's hand tighter as you made your way through the crowd. It was past noon, which meant that you were going to spend over 12 hours at this amusement park… Perfect for the amount of time you wanted to spend on rides. First, however, you and Cliff made your way towards the Main Street area, where you entered the first store you could find to find Disney gear for you both to grab for… decent prices. You didn't have much money on you, only your savings from work, as did Cliff, but you both perused through the various items that were on display. You could care less about hats and jackets… you cared more about ear caps and hairbands.

 

You let go of Cliff's hand to grab a Mouseketeer cap, placing it on Cliff's head with a grin. "Let's get your name embroidered on that!"

 

(a doodle of Cliff that I drew because imagining him in a ear cap was cute)

 

In response, Cliff placed one on your head as well with a small smile. "Heh… You look pretty cute in that."

 

You blushed lightly and crossed your arms. "Me? Cute? Never! You look absolutely adorable in yours."

 

"I look ridiculous."

 

"Ridiculously adorable," you corrected.

 

You laughed together in total amusement as you walked over to the counter to get your hats embroidered. You decided last minute that instead of just simply getting your names etched into the hat, that you'd get "CLIFF'S" on yours and he would get your name on his. You also decided to get those couple shirts to go with your outfits… The one that you decided to go for was a Lady and the Tramp spaghetti pair, and if you stood side by side, the spaghetti string would connect to each other. You switched out of your original shirt, changing into the tank top as Cliff did the same, throwing on his denim jacket again as you did the same, looking in a mirror together. You had on a pair of frayed, denim shorts, and he had on his usual bell bottoms and tattered sneakers while you sported a pair of flip fops. Sunglasses were resting on both of your faces as you adjusted the caps on each other's faces.

 

"All right. I think we're ready to get a move on." You glanced up at Cliff lovingly as he gave you the same look, grinning happily.

 

"I'm ready."

 

You left the shop together and were on your way into the park to have the time of your life together.

 

Out of all the rides that were at the park, you and Cliff agreed that Matterhorn, the giant mountain, bobsled ride in the center of the park, was your favorite. In fact, it was so fun that you ended up riding it a consecutive 15 times together, hopping through the lines and finding your way on the bobsleds once again, usually in the seat that held two people together in one unit. Cliff would be behind you, wrapping his length arms around you and his legs bending outward because of his height… Which, was his downfall at amusement parks especially. Because he was tall, his legs were often sprawled in all sorts of odd angles to fit on a ride. That was the only thing that bothered him… But other than that, you both had a blast on these rides.

 

Soon enough, the night was coming to an end, and you found yourself heading for the back of the bus, cuddling up against Cliff as you made the journey back home. You, thankfully, didn't buy much, but the items that you lugged back with you to the bus with Cliff were special.

 

The first item was the Mickey-eared balloon that Cliff bought you that remained tied to your wrist. Which, glancing down at your wrist, you had an engraved, leather bracelet strapped around you, which had "HEART BELONGS TO CLIFF BURTON" etched around the band, Cliff having a similar one that stated "HEART BELONGS TO (Y/FN) (Y/LN)" These bracelets were a wonderful edition to the rings that stayed on your ring fingers.

 

The next thing was a giant 101 Dalmatians plush that Cliff managed to get for you towards the tail-end of your visit to Disneyland… He knew very well that 101 Dalmatians was up there on your favorites, and plus, how could you resist a giant Dalmatian puppy plush?

 

For the remainder of the trip back, you and Cliff cuddled together in the back of the bus, falling asleep in his arms as you laid there together with your one and only…

 

You've determined that Cliff was your one and only and that you were going to spend the rest of your life with him… No fucking doubt.

 

You loved him. More than you could express.

 

Unknowingly for you, these next few years will be some of the hardest that you will face, with the greatest loss to ever surface for you…

 

No.

 

You had NO idea what life was going to throw at you.

 

That was probably one of the scariest bits about life.

 

You remained clueless, however, blindly falling deeper and deeper in love with your red-haired companion at the back of this school-trip bus…

 

**_If only you knew._ **

 

 

————

 

Pomp and Circumstance

The dreaded, repetitive song that band performs for graduation every year.

 

The song of utter completion of a milestone in someone's life.

 

A song of educational freedom….

 

For now, anyways.

 

You were sitting in your row, away from Cliff because your last name was nowhere NEAR "Burton", and you were becoming antsy by the second as you spent time physically away from your partner… for once… It felt odd not being by his side, especially during a ceremony such as this one. You anxiously listened to the high school band play Pomp and Circumstance on repeat, trying to distract yourself from how overwhelming this all was for you…

 

You made it. You finished high school. It was time to venture off into the world to do what you wanted. Life was in your hands to do what you wanted with it. Except, it wasn't just for yourself, but also for the person that you loved the most. Your life was intertwined with your best friends' and not being able to sit next to him because of some stupid—

 

"CLIFFORD LEE BURTON" the principal of Castro Valley High School slowly annunciated syllable by syllable as you watched Cliff start to walk from the line that he was creeping up to the edge of the stage with, you imagining him crossing the stage to receive his… well, fake diploma, pause for a picture, and walk off, moving the tassel over from right to left to represent graduating from the hellhole that is high school. Of course the school wouldn't give you your real diploma at the ceremony… Something could happen to it, so they just gave you a piece of paper that gave you instructions as to where to pick up the official document… This whole graduation ceremony was all for show, really. For your friends and family.

 

Time seemed to slow down.

 

It was as if you were seeing everything in slow motion as your mind tried to process it all.

 

In your head, you knew that you shouldn't do what you were about to do, but you proceeded to do it anyways. Something extravagantly daring that no other person would do in your class.

 

From where you were sitting, you stood up quickly, your graduation gown swaying as you shot after Cliff once his name was called out and he started walking across the stage. All your sports and academic medals clunk together as you sprinted towards your lover on the stage, where you intercepted him receiving his fake high school diploma and stole the show of graduation very briefly.Surprised, and slightly overwhelmed by your actions, he caught you in his arms as you tackled into him, causing him to falter a bit, but he proceeded to kiss you very lovingly in front of the whole graduating class of 1980. Not to mention, the FAMILIES of the graduating class of 1980. As sparks flew in your mind as you locked lips with Cliff you could hear your families, specifically your fathers, shouting at the both of you, cheering you on as you created this scene in the public's eyes. You gazed at him affectionately once you pulled away from him, mouthing "I love you" as you blushed heavily, Cliff mumbling it back to you too. Your high school principal called out once again, "Clifford Lee Burton and his partner in crime (Y/FN) (Y/LN)"

 

The crowd cheered, not just your parents this time, as did the rest of the class below you, which was odd because you remembered that you weren't the most liked nor popular kid in school… Nah, they were mainly cheering Cliff on.

 

You were surprised when the principal said your full name, as both you and Cliff approached him, shook his hands respectively, and walked down the stage holding hands together. You both moved each other's tassels to the left and grinned widely because your caps had each other's names decorated on top within a heart.

 

You sat down next to Cliff in his row, which shifted the rest of the class, but you didn't really care at all about that.

 

"What the hell was that?" Cliff whispered to you, squeezing your hand.

 

"What the hell was what?"

 

"What you just did! Running up to me and kissing me like that in front of our whole class and family!"

 

"I couldn't resist you, baby…. I wanted our whole graduating class to know that you are mine." You gazed up at him in an almost innocent gaze. "I'm sorry, baby…" you apologized quickly and quietly, feeling that your actions were ones that Cliff didn't approve of… You were trying to hide the fact that you were taking his reaction negatively, burying it deep down inside of you. Cliff was never really into public displays of affection, so this was a move that was really daring for the both of you to present yourselves in.

 

He simply leaned in to kiss you gently. "That.. was the most daring thing you have ever done in public. I'd be lying if I said that wasn't attractive." He grinned at you. "Fuck, baby…. The look on our principal's face when you sprinted up to me and tackled me… He was very surprised at the amount of love that was portrayed by that act." He rubbed his thumb affectionately over the back of your hand.

 

Hours passed since that moment, the first hour after graduation consisting of you and Cliff with both your parents in the neighboring town, Hayward, dining at the local all-you-can-eat sushi restaurant. This was probably one of your favorite places to eat sushi, as they had a decent selection that tasted pretty good. Cliff would come back to the table with plates full of sushi, and you would do the same. Your parents and Cliff's sister would watch you as you and Cliff turned to each other, chopsticks between your fingers, feeding each other the various rolls that you had picked out meticulously to litter the plate full to the brim.

 

Both your parents would gently pummel you with questions about the future, where you were headed… Cliff's parents even talked about striking a deal with their son, about how he can live rent-free and they'd help pay for school, if that was something that he wanted to do or not, and if he managed to land somewhere with his musical talent. However, if he never picked anything up, and what he wanted to do wasn't earning him enough, or if he wasn't successful at all in a couple years, he would have to stay in school and get a degree in computer engineering, or something that would pay well, if and only if fueling his passion was getting him nowhere. 

 

Your parents, on the other hand, reminded you that you could do whatever you wanted, as long as you were happy, and as long as you were receiving a steady income…. They didn't really care what you did with your future, as long as you were content with whatever you were doing. That, in of itself, is what every parent should strive for in their kids, and you were extremely thankful that they let you go on your own path with full confidence that you would be successful…

 

You and Cliff were midway chewing at the sushi rolls you had just fed each other when your mother asks, "So… When should we be expecting you to ask the big question, Cliff?"

 

Cliff swallowed his chewed up roll and gazed at your mother before glancing at you affectionately. "Give it some time. I don't believe we're ready to be committed fully like that.. But, we will fully dedicate ourselves to the other in the best way that we can… I love (Y/N), I really do. Hell, they're probably the one that I have sought out for my entire life… I know that whatever happens, (Y/N) will be in my life with me, whether they marry me or not…"

 

"I wouldn't want anyone else being with my kid. We trust you the most with (Y/N)."

 

"I'm very flattered and honored that you feel that way, Mrs. (Y/LN)

 

If there was one thing about Cliff, it was that he was very respectable towards your parents, as well as just in general with people… You believed that was why your parents loved him so much, was because he was so respectable and he always treated them with respect, nothing more, nothing less.

 

Later that evening, you found yourself sitting in your room in your house, putting on a record as Cliff laid on your bed, waiting for you to join him. "What were you gonna surprise me with this time?"

 

You drop the needle onto the record and stood up once the trumpets filled the speaker.

 

Cliff perked up when he heard that. "Tower of Power? Damn… When was the last time we listened to Tower of Power, (Y/N)…? It's been too long…"

 

You grinned with. "Guess what?"

 

"What?" He sat up to gaze at you with curious eyes.

 

"I got us tickets to go see them!" you pulled two tickets from behind you. "Front row, baby!"

 

"Man! I never thought in a million years I would be going to a Tower of Power concert with you! Them being Bay Area natives makes it really cool! We're gonna have a good night!"

 

"That's not all." You pulled into your denim jacket and whipped out another set of tickets. "I got us tickets to go see Iron Maiden's self-titled album tour, Judas Priest on their British Steel tour, and Black Sabbath on their Heaven and Hell tour, with Ronnie James Dio as the frontman! All individual concerts during different days… Our summer before college is gonna be awesome!"

 

Cliff stood up and leaned in to kiss you with that. "Best surprise ever! But how the _FUCK_ did you manage to find the time, money, and will to get these fuckin tickets!? You didn't sell your soul or nothin', ddja?" he joked with that.

 

"Trust me, all the hours of work that I put into that fucking job that I fucking hate, as well as having connections with people in the music industry because it's a field that I want to dive into… Word gets around, and I got these tickets as graduation gifts… I barely paid a cent for any of them!"

 

Appalled by this, Cliff sat at the edge of the bed and leaned in to kiss you. "Summer's gonna be amazing."

 

You smiled widely as you handed him a beer bottle that you took from downstairs, clinking yours with his. "Cheers. Consider all this as my 'you made it through high school' present to you."

 

Cliff took a sip from his beer and grinned almost stupidly, the corners of his mouth running from ear to ear. "It's perfect. All of it. And so are you." He gave you another loving kiss before breaking away to take a swig out of the beer bottle. The record continued to gloss over "You're Still a Young Man" as you and Cliff proceed to start slow dancing together, like how you did at prom, setting your beers aside.

 

_You're still a young man..._

_Baby…._

Oooo..

_Don't waste your time…_

 

Your loving gaze focused on Cliff as he held you close to him as you continued to slow dance happily.

 

_Down on my knees…_

Whole heart in hand….

 

"(Y/N)… I've got a confession to make…" Cliff pulled away, cupping your hands in his as his eyes raked over you. "I've been thinking about it this past month since we've been promised to each other."

 

Your lip quivered nervously as you slightly raised your brows in question of this. "What is it, baby…?"

 

_I was accused of being too young…_

_But I'm not so young_

 

"I've…. been thinking about our future together, like how you were thinking about our future on the dock at Lake Chabot a couple weeks back… And… All I know is that I want to be yours until the end of time… I don't have a ring, nor the means of getting one for an official engagement ring… Fuck, I bought our skull rings at the Ross Dress for Less on Castro Valley Boulevard… I was lucky to even find two at the same spot! In our sizes, nonetheless… I would've had to go west or east to find another Ross to buy those rings… So…"

 

_Can't you understand?_

_That I think like a man?_

 

You squeezed his hands reassuringly as you got lost in his words, especially in his facial expressions. You could see that he was talking, but it was almost as if your ears cut off the ability to hear, simply watching Cliff's mouth move slowly as he formed sentences in a clusterfuck of words.

 

_Oh no no baby_

_Don't go wasting my time_

 

 

"(Y/N), wherever we end up going in life, I know for sure that we'll be together… If… If I land a gig with a band, I want you to drop everything and come with me too… I have an audition coming up with this band calling themselves Trauma… They're looking for a new bassist, (Y/N), and… this could be my big chance! If… it comes around to it, I'm not sure where they're potentially headed, but I want you to tour around with me if it comes down to that… See the places that I'll be headed to… We'll figure out a way for you to get money while being with us too… Maybe you could be a roadie for us, if push comes to shove…"

 

_Back once again_

_Ooo, just begging you please_

 

You simply nodded and smiled gently at the suggestion, as Cliff being in a band was a no brainer for you, that's for damn sure…. But what band would be the next question that would rack your brain… You wouldn't mind dropping everything to travel with Cliff, especially if it was his passion… You had nothing against that idea… but the thought of not having a personal income to support you both was a little frightening.

 

_Darling, think twice about me_

_'Cause I'm not so bad_

_I could make you happy_

_I'm not a mad lad_

 

"You… think I'll get in a band that will actually wanna keep me?"

 

You puffed your cheeks before saying, "We've been around each other for so many years that if I had gotten tired of you, I would have stopped being around you. You gotta just be yourself, and show those bands that you're Cliff Fucking Burton and that you kick ass at that mother fucking bass guitar!"

 

_You're too young to love_

 

Cliff gave a gentle sigh before resting his chin affectionately on your head. "Mmmm… I hope it comes out like that… I guess only time will tell…"

 

_If you and I could be together_

_I'd get to you through any weather_

 

Cliff pulls you over to the bed, where you cuddle up against him, being spooned by him, shutting your eyes as he pressed a kiss to your head.

 

_I love you, yes, I love you only_

 

_I'd never leave you lonely_

_Don't waste your time_

 

You found yourself humming along to the vocal track for this song, eyes shut as Cliff affectionately squeezed you.

 

_The damage is done_

_You'll see that you're wrong_

 

You weren't entirely sure what was better: Sex or Cuddling, Both felt wonderful, especially the way that you were cuddled up against each other currently. It was very relaxing and intimate to be in this position with Cliff. A situation that could turn wild, but most of the time stays dormant.

 

_You'll wake up wondering_

_Just how well I've done_

_Well, I've done all right_

 

"Well, enough about me… Let's talk about you."

 

You groaned at the idea. "What do you wanna talk about?"

 

"Your goals, aspirations, what you wanna do with that smart head of yours."

 

"Well… You know I always wanted to be a musician too… But I also want to focus on my other passion."

 

"Art?"

 

"Art." You nodded your head gently. "I've been thinking about it for a while now… Maybe I could be an artist for album covers? Or… maybe even an animator for Disney. Wouldn't that be cool? Being at Disneyland reminded me about that…"

 

"Of all the people that I know, I _know_ you can be a successful animator. No question. Just as you are passionate with music, you're passionate with everything else, babe… You of all people can do whatever you wanna do, especially if you put your all to it."

 

You hummed gently, shutting your eyes. "Other than that…? I was thinking of auditioning for the San Francisco Symphony… As a bass player."

 

"Classical bass?"

 

"Hell yeah."

 

"Babe. That'd be so fucking awesome, I would come to all of your shows if you were to play with them!"

 

You smiled brightly. "Thanks…" You sighed with that and nuzzled into him affectionately. "Honestly, Cliff? I also want to be an astronomer… Or an astrophysicist… A psychologist, zoologist, veterinarian… A sound engineer. There's just so much out there that I want to do, to try out… to get lost in… Space, music, art, science… all of it. I wanna do it all… But I know that's an impossible feat…"

 

Cliff squeezed you again. "You gotta funnel it down somehow… Shit, you have a whole life ahead of you… I'm sure you'll figure it out, or just continue to bounce between what you wanna do… If I know anything about you, it's that you won't stay in one place for extreme amount of periods of time."

  
"Mmm… yeah… I guess you're right." You simply chuckled at him. "Either way, the future is bright for both of us."

 

"Hell yeah it is." Cliff pressed a kiss to your head and cuddled affectionately into you, finding yourselves drifting into a peaceful slumber through the end of the Tower of Power song playing in the background.

 

_Yes, there are some girls_

_But I'd drop them on sight_

_Just for you_

 

_Because I love you_

 

_You're still a young man_

_Baby, oooo_

 

_Don't waste your time…_

 

 

 


	6. Trauma

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A year and a half after high school graduation, Cliff and you get Misfits tattoos done together, catch up in a pool hall, have a smoke session at the Port of Oakland, across the bay from San Francisco, and travel to LA for Trauma's performance at the Whiskey-A-Go-Go, where James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich meet Cliff for the first time and are impressed by his talent.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AS OF 13 JUNE 2019, SPACE CADET IS PERMANENTLY DISCONTINUED. THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR SUPPORTING THIS PIECE OF WORK AND IT SADDENS ME THAT I WILL NOT GET TO SEE IT FINISHED. I HAVE HAD A LOT OF FUN WRITING THE CHAPTERS THAT I HAVE WRITTEN, HOWEVER, I CURRENTLY DO NOT HAVE THE WILL NOR THE TIME TO REALLY CONTINUE THIS WORK. 
> 
> I will however keep it online... There just won't be any more chapter additions to the story.
> 
> After a month of terrible personal ailments going on, the newest chapter is here. Sorry for taking so long... Life's been cumbersome.

 

_Bzzzt… Bzzt..._

 

**Early December, 1981**

 

 

A year and a couple months have passed since you graduated from high school and moved on to Chabot College in Hayward, California. A lot can change over the course of a year… And if there was one thing about your full year at Chabot, midway into your second year, it's that things don't necessarily go as planned… Especially as young adults who have no idea what they're getting themselves into…. Cliff wasn't digging the engineering program at all… in fact, he really wanted to drop out of it, but you encouraged him to stick around a little bit longer… Recently, ever since he was recruited into his band, Trauma, all he wanted to do was play music… He tried his hardest to focus on school as well, but it was starting to slip away because of his passion driving the spearhead of his life goals. He would hack away at work, school, band practice, and time spent with you almost seamlessly, although with how busy you both were, you ended up only really seeing each other in the evening when the day was done… You'd spend time in each others' arms, mostly resting, not so much talking about your days or hearing stories from one another… It was just you in his loving arms, cuddling and spooning for the rest of the night. You weren't entirely sure how he was even capable of balancing everything out… You had a hard time juggling many things at once, yet Cliff was flooring you at being better at it…Despite him slightly slipping away from perfect grades, he was still managing to pass all of his classes with the lowest drive for them thought possible…

 

_Bzzzzzzt…._

 

You found yourself lost in the constant whirring of the tattoo gun, paying no mind to the needles constantly digging into your skin, ripping a fresh wound out of blood and ink escaping from within you. Your fingers intertwined with Cliff's as two artists were working simultaneously on an upper arm piece for the both of you. A matching upper arm piece, anyways. Cliff had thought about this for a while now, getting inked up, he just wasn't sure what he wanted at the time… Since you were both, by now, of legal age to get tatted, you decided to go for it. Simple Man by Lynyrd Skynyrd started seeping through the shop's speakers as you squeezed Cliff's hand tighter.

 

"Mama told me… When I was young…" you sang softly.

 

"Come sit beside me, my only son" Cliff continued back with a small smile, ignoring the pain that he was feeling from the needles scratching at his own skin.

 

"And listen closely to what I say…" You smiled back at him with that.

 

"And if you do this, it'll help you some sunny day…" Cliff shut his eyes as you both hummed along to the song… He would always blast this album in his car when he finally ended up driving you around… He loved his Lynyrd Skynyrd very much, and you had nothing against it at all… What you lacked in the classics, he lacked in on the New Wave of British Heavy Metal that was circulating around, so your music tastes would often blend together… You both tuned into the Bay Area's music scene, which was currently forming into what would later be known as a subcategory of metal called thrash metal, or speed metal...

 

Bay Area Thrash.

 

Cliff loved his classics, both in rock and in orchestral, punk, and jazz. He was all over the place in terms of music taste, which was something that you loved very much about him. You could honestly listen to anything and be perfectly content with it yourself.

 

After a couple hours out of your day had come and gone from the tattoo session, you both stood in front of a mirror together, eyeing the identical tattoos on your upper arms that your artists did a superb, clean job of… You got yours on your left and Cliff got his on his right. The Fiend skull itself. Cliff was telling you how he wanted to get a skull tattoo, but that he decided to go for the iconic Misfits skull because it stood out from the rest of the skulls that others your age would go for… Besides, he was a diehard fan of them, which didn't really surprise you. This was Cliff's first tattoo, but it definitely wasn't yours. You recalled visiting this same shop on your birthday last year, getting a traditional dragon skeleton tattoo wrapping around your left arm, the head jutting out towards your wrist. It was highly detailed, and you loved it very much. This new Misfits tattoo contrasted with it very well. You also had a geometric, simplistic, thin-line-work wolf on your right forearm. The "Lone Wolf".

 

"Looks wonderful, baby," Cliff commented with a grin. "I love it. Now you'll always have a piece of me with you," he teased as he leaned down to peck your head. You simply rolled your eyes at him as your eyes grazed over the new ink with a hearty laugh.

 

"It'll definitely remind me of you, especially because of how much you love Danzig... More than me obviously. " You nodded your head in response, gazing up at him. "And you'll think of me when you look at yours in the mirror, but mostly about Glen Danzig, as I've said before."

 

Cliff shook his head. "I love Danzig, but not as much as I love you… So this piece will definitely make me think of you, especially when we spend time away from each other… like when I'm out touring with Trauma… Since you won't be able to come with me to some of the shows…"

 

You sighed. "I'll go if you go anywhere outside of the Bay… But I gotta save my time off from work for the moments you travel far… So that way I can be with you without a hassle."

 

He wrapped his arm around your waist and squeezed before guiding you over to the counter to pay for the fresh ink and to tip your artists. You both stepped out of the shop, glancing both ways before heading back to the car. "I was about ready to fall asleep throughout that whole session…" you admitted to Cliff softly. "How was the first tattoo experience?"

 

"It hurt. But it wasn't unbearable… Being with you made the experience a little bit easier to handle…" he admitted.

 

You squeezed his hand as his Grasshopper roared to life and he started to head for home. "Glad I could help." You leaned in to peck him on the cheek, which caused him to blush lightly.

 

There was a moment of silence where you were expecting Cliff to pop in a tape or something to break it, but that moment never came, and you were left listening to the engine whirring as he stepped lightly on the gas.

 

"Thanks babe…" Cliff thanked quickly, without much warning.

 

"For what…?"

 

"For… always knowing how to brighten my day, how to calm me when shit gets too much…. and for just… being you.”

 

You blushed lightly and gazed at him, squeezing his hand even tighter, if that was possible. "Where's all this coming from?"

 

"I feel like I never appreciate you enough, (Y/N)… Or at least, I don't outwardly express any of my feelings for you as you do for me… You are my everything, you complete me, and I can't live without you… Everything that we have already established, but I want to remind you… Because I love you."

 

You paused before releasing his hand, looking out the window. "Cliff… You might not say it outwardly like I do, but your actions express it more than words ever will.. I know you love me and that you appreciate me…. You're a beautiful soul that does more show than tell. What you do for me is enough, Cliff… I hope you know that…." You inhaled deeply before stating, "I hope you know how much I love you…"

 

"I… know we just got these tattoos… But uh… Wanna go bowling? Or… go to the pool hall…? Somewhere other than home… You've been busy with work, school, and the jazz band… I've been busy with Trauma, school, and work… It's finally Christmas break and the only thing keeping us away from each other is work and band priorities on my end… This is the first time that we've had free time for each other in… I want to say months…Probably since the beginning of the semester… I dunno… I just.. I feel like we need to do something…"

 

"It's been a year and a half, almost, since we graduated… Yet, you're right… We barely have time for each other these days… I'd love a good unwinding…" you admitted.

 

"Has it really been a year and a half already…? Man… Time's flying by like no tomorrow… Soon, it's gonna be 1982…"

 

"1982… Man. We're gonna be 20 year olds after the holidays. Isn't that crazy? We won't be teenagers anymore."

 

"Egh… Don't remind." Cliff shook his head. "Okay, okay… What didja wanna do? Maybe… smoke a bit before we head to where we wanna go…?"

 

You thought for a second before responding, "Well… First of all, you suck at bowling…" you noted as you crossed your arms and stared out into the distance, recalling the time that Cliff managed to get all gutter-balls in one game once… He wasn't exactly the most elegant bowler... But you found it hilarious. "So unless you want my ass to whoop your ass again at it… that's on you. Plus… you wouldn't wanna go bowling after getting inked up… We should do something less physical…" Your eyes grazed over the sprinkled clouds across the sunset sky, pondering. "As for smoking… I'd rather smoke later than now… So we can at least enjoy the high at the Marina… or Port of Oakland or something…"

 

"But if we go to the Port of Oakland now, we can smoke and watch the sun set…"

 

"True…. Eh. I don't really feel like going to the Port of Oakland right now… Maybe another time, since it's a beautiful place to be… Let's just decide to do something else for now and head over to the San Leandro Marina to smoke… Yeah? It's closer anyways…"

 

"Yeah. That sounds good," Cliff agreed with you.

 

"As for where to go… The pool hall sounds nice… Or we can hit up an arcade?"

 

"Pool hall." Cliff seemed determined with that answer.

 

"If you wanted to go to Chalk it Up all along, you could've just said that, Cliff…"

 

"Yeah… But I wanted to see where you wanted to go first."

 

"Chalk it Up it is. Gives us some time to chat…. since we've both been crazy busy with… well… everything.

 

Cliff nodded his head with that, redirecting the car towards Hayward now. "We… sleep together at night, yet we don't really talk…" he mumbled, gripping the wheel a little tighter. "Either you crash at my apartment, or I crash at your house…. But… you're right. It's almost as if we're not around each other, but we are…? It's very strange, being an adult and college student and all… I wasn't expecting life to change so drastically…"

 

 

 

(Downtown Hayward)

 

(A photo that I took at Chalk it Up) 

 

"It's called being an adult… It was bound to happen one way or another." You puffed your cheeks as Cliff ended up parking on the street, in the heart of downtown Hayward. You both exited the car and started walking towards the pool hall, hand in hand. You both headed into the entrance and down the stairs into the basements where the pool hall was, glancing around at the many rows of pool tables, getting designated to table 13.

 

Lucky 13.

 

You racked up the balls together to get the game set up, Cliff grabbing you both cue sticks that were hung along the walls, chalking up his own as you positioned the colored balls onto the tabletop within a triangle rack. 

 

"Hows your rental job treating you?" you cracked a question up, removing the rack to leave the balls in a triangular shape towards one end of the table, aligning it with the silver dot on the tabletop.

 

"I got questioning stares when I turned all the lawn mowers on and started conducting them out of nowhere at the end of my shift." Cliff walked over to the other side of the table and set the white cue ball down, bending over to try to get a good angle to break.

 

You burst out laughing with that one, one hand on your waist and the other holding your cue stick. "You _what_ now!?"

 

_CRACK!_

 

Cliff broke perfectly and watched the array of balls springing around to see if he potentially sunk anything, frowning when nothing sunk, which led to your turn. "I turned on all the lawn mowers and conducted them like a symphony," he reiterated, almost nonchalantly.

 

"That… sounds like something you would do." You chuckled in amusement once more before eyeing what ball to sink, bending over as you tapped the cue ball into a solid colored ball, sinking it. You thanked Cliff in your head for spreading all the balls so well, even getting some ridiculously close to pockets. "Guess I'm solids then." You bend over once more to try to sink another, but failed, the cue ball ricocheting into a striped ball. "Has the job been treating you well at least?"

 

You weren't really paying attention, but Cliff's eyes would rake over your body every time you were bent over, his eyes trained on your figure… Which, he knew very well… From experience. He positioned himself behind the cue ball once more to try to sink something this time around. "Well… It's a steady income for now since we're still trying to figure out money and gigs with Trauma… Although we seem to be headed in the right direction, playing all over the Bay Area and even outside of it sometimes… We just landed a gig out in Stockton! One of the first places outside of the Bay Area. Then Sacramento after that!"

 

"Babe, that sounds awesome and cool that you're finally landing gigs outside of the Bay… That's definitely a start in the right direction… How are classes going?"

 

"Boring as fuck. Connie convinced me to go the computer engineer route… I'm not really digging it…"

 

"Well, the beauty of college is being able to change courses and direction whenever you feel like it… And besides, we gotta get general education out of the way before we can really hit our majors… yannoe? I'm digging the music program at Chabot, but I'm not really sure how I feel about the rest of it…"

 

You both continued knocking balls into pockets, the crack of the cue ball colliding with the others reverberating in your ears. You were determined to win, but couldn't help but find your mind drifting elsewhere.

 

"Well… Did you hear back from the San Francisco Symphony about your application…?" Cliff broke the silence, out of curiosity.

 

"Yes, actually. I did… They want to audition me the day after Christmas."

 

"Wow! That's great, babe! Good to hear! I'm not doing anything after Christmas, so I can definitely tag along!"

 

Hearing that made you smile wider than you ever thought you could. The San Francisco Symphony was somewhere you've always wanted to play… Be a part of… Aside from being in a band of your own of course… The news of possibly being a part of this group really shed some light on your life direction. 

 

After a couple rounds, Cliff ended up hustling you and beating you the first round, you winning the second, and constantly ending up finding out that you alternated in wins. You and Cliff continued to circle through various aspects about your life, whether it be about musical endeavors, about the stray cat or dog you saw on the road, about Cliff's odd moments at his job, to the future ahead of you both.

 

You sunk the 8-ball this round, deeming you winner of this game as you lean against the table, cue stick in your grasp.

 

Cliff crossed his arms and gazed down at you. "Damn… You won." He shook his head, his hair following this motion. "You always beat me… At everything"

 

"Maybe you gotta try harder," you teased with a smirk.

 

Cliff leaned down to give you a kiss with a soft laugh. "I owe you some head for that win."

 

"I was joking about that earlier, but I'll take it if you insist." You laughed and kissed him again as he stole the cue stick from your hand and started walking off to put them back on the rack agains the wall, striding towards you in his usual, large, effortless steps.

 

"Well. You won fair and square. You deserve it." He smirked as he leaned down to kiss you again, holding your hands. "Comeon. Let's go home." You eyed one of the many clocks that were hung around the pool hall, noting that it was 1 in the morning… Damn. Were you really down here, shooting pool for so many hours of the night? That surprised you. "Holy fuck. Yeah, we need to go home."

 

With that, Cliff linked his arm with yours and walked you up the stairs and out of the building towards the car where you were met by the cold air whipping at your face. As soon as you got into the shelter of Cliff's car and Cliff brought the engine to life, your eyes locked on him and the bag of weed that he was beginning to pull out from the middle compartment. "Marina… then home?" you asked, tilting your head, even though you both had just agreed on going home…

 

 ****

(880 at night)

"Port of Oakland, then home. I know you said that you weren't in the mood for the Port of Oakland tonight… but I'd rather be there than at the Marina… Less people, if any at all." He nodded his head. "Winter break, might as well release our inner night owl if we're gonna smoke." he gassed it as he merged onto the freeway that was mostly barren at the dead of night, cruising down the road as he popped in a random tape from his tape box, reaching over to hold your hand.

 

Zenyatta Mondatta's side one started playing through the speakers, your hand squeezing his further as Don't Stand So Close to Me made its way through the speakers.

 

"Damn… Haven't listened to the Police in a long while.. You still like them?"

 

"I do. Very much… I'm just waiting for the next album to release."

 

"Think it will be better than this?"

 

"One can hope," Cliff mumbled as he cranked up the volume.

 

_Young teacher, the subject of school girl fantasy_

_She wants him so badly_

_Knows what she wants to be_

_Inside her, there's no room_

_This girl's an open page_

_Book marking she's so close now_

_This girl is half his age_

 

_Don't stand, don't stand so, don't stand so close to me_

_Don't stand, don't stand so, don't stand so close to me_

 

You found yourself humming along to the song, squeezing Cliff's hand harder at the chorus, wanting him to very much stand close to you through all of this. "Man.. this song is… inappropriate…" you mumbled, eyes trailing up to Cliff's, which were focused and trained on the road ahead.

"Mmmm… I'm sure that was what they were going for when they wrote this song…" He took a quick glance at you before focusing back on the road, following the highway until the end where he had to merge on another freeway.

 

"I'm not used to seeing 880 so… empty," you noted as your eyes scanned the abandoned road, not seeing another car's taillights for miles.

 

"I'm sure the port's gonna be pretty empty too… Leaves us alone."

 

"That's what I love about late night cruisin'… Just you and me, baby."'

 

Cliff smirked with that. "Just the way I like it."

 

 

(West Oakland USPS)

 

You watched as Cliff finally took an exit, eyes staring at the giant, USPS building, which was alive with workers sorting through mail… You never could imagine yourself working at a federal job such as that… Or any, for that matter… You were unsure how workers were able to just stand there and sort through all the mail… All the manual labor that they had to do… That was not your style… You had enough with manual labor at your retail job… At least the pay would be better if you were to switch over to a job like at USPS… But alas, you wanted nothing to do with that.

 

(Port of Oakland cranes)

 

Cliff turned onto a two-lane road, driving under a bridge as your eyes laid sight on the dozens of cranes that littered the harbor. From afar, they didn't look big, an illusion your eyes played on you. The closer you got, the bigger they became, and the more terrifying it was to be beneath them. You couldn't believe that this place would be bustling with big rigs and shipments form overseas, cranes moving the freights, stacking them like giant legos, and placing them onto big rigs to move across the country… This place was always terrifying to drive in during the day.

 

You recall bringing Cliff here for the very first time, being greeted by hundreds of passing freight trucks, squeezing by on your bike. It was an anxiety-filled time as you weaved through the trucks to get to your destination… The park was beautiful, no matter what time of day. You and Cliff found yourselves smoking yourselves silly at either the watch tower at the edge of the harbor, or at the gigantic, ledge steps that led to the ocean beneath you. Sometimes the tide would be shallow enough to allow you to walk on the muddied up sand where you're not supposed to stand in, yet you and Cliff stood in it anyways. You stood close together, away from the tides since Cliff wasn't exactly the best swimmer, and you didn't want him to get washed away…

 

No.

 

You wouldn't allow that to happen. Ever.

 

Before you could even move anywhere else, a police officer found you both standing down there and had you get out of there, as you were disobeying the signs that were posted all around… You remembered that day very clearly. You weren't exactly baked yet, but you were getting to the point where the consumption of weed was going to happen… Yet the police officer just told you both to get out of there. Thankfully he didn't search you for the weed that Cliff had stashed in his denim jacket. You both sat on the ginormous steps instead and smoked some grass once the police officer was out of your hair.

(Port of Oakland, where Cliff and reader are sitting, my photo) 

 

Tonight, however, was a totally different story. The moon was out in the sky as you both got out of the car and walked side by side to the steps that you always found yourselves moving towards whenever you set foot on the port. The water was touching the last set of steps, and you found yourself sitting with Cliff, feet dangling above the water as you began to make out with him, your hands in his. He lovingly nipped at your lips and leaned into you, his hands letting yours go and moving to cup your waist, squeezing you. You let out a soft noise as he moved from your lips to your neck, hands fondling you affectionately as his teeth grazed the skin of your neck. You pulled away to kiss him on the lips again, redirecting him right to your love for him, grinning as you continuously made out, all alone in this port together. You didn't see a single car on your way in when Cliff was driving, and there were none parked in the lot when Cliff took a space. The park that accompanied the port was abandoned, for the most part, except for the geese that made this place their home… It was silent too, aside from the push and pull of the ocean's waves. You didn't see a single human being at this spot. Not since you left Castro Valley, really… It almost felt like you were in a completely different world at night… Especially at this hour.

 

Cliff pulled away, and you watched his eyes shift from you to your fresh tattoo, his hand gently crawling up your arm to just beneath where the Misfits tattoo ended. "How's it feeling…?"

 

"Feels… the same. Just a little tingly.. It didn't really hurt that bad…" You shut your eyes and put a hand lovingly on top of his that remained on your arm. "How about yours…? You holding up okay?"

 

Cliff let out a deep inhale before responding, "Yeah… It's a little sore… But nothing I can't handle." He gazed at you with affectionate eyes, your eyes meeting, your gazes locking on one another. You never got tired of staring into his eyes… Getting lost in him.. You felt that you could do it all day, if you were given the option to. The eyes say a lot about a person.. And when it came to Cliff, they showcased how much he really, truly, was madly in love with you.

 

After what felt like an eternity of staring into each others' eyes, Cliff whipped out the bag of weed that he had taken from his car, and you slid out a glass pipe from your pocket, handing it to him to pack it. He, with his fingertips, ripped a bud apart and placed tiny pieces into the bowl, handing it to you while taking a lighter out from his pocket. You placed the end of the pipe in your mouth, thumb over the hole as you took a drag as Cliff lit the pieces of bud in the bowl. You release your thumb and pull the pipe out of your mouth, exhaling a gentle cloud into the air, giving a harsh cough. Without hesitation, you took another dry hit and exhaled, coughing again as you hand the pipe to Cliff. "Mmmm… Fuck…" you groaned as you proceeded to harshly cough. "Phew.. that was… that was a good hit." The high almost instantaneously zipped right through you.

 

Cliff effortlessly refilled the bowl and took a couple hits himself, giving gentle coughs after his last hit, handing you the pipe as you both stared out into the beautiful sea in front of you together, feeling the buzz of the high overcome you like the push and pull of the waves below your feet.

 

"There's not a lotta people who I can actually, legitimately, say that I wanna keep in my life," Cliff trailed off as you begin packing the bowl again to smoke. "I wanna keep you… for the rest of my time here on this planet, (Y/N)… I'm yours…"

 

You took a fat hit before setting the pipe down, blowing out to the wind, your eyes shutting as the warmth filled your core.

 

"I'm yours"

 

You repeated it back to him.

 

Before you knew it, you were laying on your back on the concrete, arms above your head as Cliff hovered over you and passionately locked lips with you. He wasn't kidding when he said that he owed you head because he lost to the game earlier… You moaned and yelped as you felt his hands pull your pants down, spreading you apart with his palms. Feeling his tongue start to explore your sex, you whined and breathed shakily, toes curling at the pleasure that he was producing from you. He kissed your clit affectionately,tongue lapping you up from the bottom up, moaning at your cries.

 

"Fuck…" he exhaled as he continuously circled your clit, his free hand moving in to start fingering you to stimulate you further. "You taste so good, baby…."

 

You moaned wantonly, throwing your head back, wanting more as your hands reached to tangle your fingers in his luscious locks. "Mmmm! Baby… Fuck… Feels so good…" You gently tugged at his hair, which caused him to groan in pleasure, eating you out happily.

 

"O-Ohhh, Cliff! C-Cliff, I-I…!"

 

"You what, baby? What do you want?"

 

"I-I wanna c-cum" you begged, gently thrusting your pelvis into him.

 

Cliff stopped and kept two fingers in you, moving up to gaze into your eyes. He had your juices coating his mouth, fiery passion burning wildly in his pupils. "You wanna cum huh? How bad?"

 

"Soooo bad, baby…. So fucking bad… Please…"

 

"Why should I give you the satisfaction of that? Why do you deserve it?"

 

You blushed heavily, trying to restrain yourself from gyrating your hips with desperate need for friction. "B-Because…"

 

"Because…" Cliff was waiting for an answer, not moving an inch since he stopped, which was frustrating you sexually to no end.

 

"Because I'm g-good… I'm your good little brat…." you mumbled, cheeks rosy.

 

Cliff groaned deeply with that. "That… That you are, my little brat…" He slapped your thigh with his free hand, the other starting to finger you again. He leaned in to stimulate your sensitive spot, flicking his tongue against the bud relentlessly as he started to thrust his fingers harder.

 

"A-Aaaah! H-Hun… I'm close!" you squeaked as he kept a steady rhythm, lapping up the liquids that were starting to seep from your cunt. He grinned at the control he had over you… He didn't seem like it in outer appearance, but deep down, and especially in bed, Cliff was a total dominant. You were the subordinate, and that power-play turned you on very much… It all happened organically, and it definitely spiced up the bedroom quite a bit.

 

You screamed out your pleasure as you came against Cliff's tongue, your core convulsing with his fingers still in you, squeezing him as he moaned gently with that response from you. He cleaned up the mess he made and kissed your clit when he got pretty much everything. You happily laid there, half naked on the concrete, hearing the push and pull of the tide once the activity was over and done with. Cliff seemed satisfied with the outcome, scooping you up to place on his lap, kissing you on the lips.

 

You wiggled your ass into him, feeling the boner that was prominent beneath you, which caused you to moan softly. You bit your lip and turned your head to face his. "Did I do that...?" you asked almost innocently.

 

Cliff pecked the top of your forehead. "Hell yeah you did this to me… Fuck… I can't resist you… Even if I wanted to…"

 

You shifted off of his lap and moved so that your ass was facing him and you were on your hands on knees against the concrete ledge,glancing at him. "What are you waiting for…?"

 

Cliff swallowed hard before tearing his pants and boxers off, immediately positioning himself against you.

 

There you go again.

 

Fucking in a public space, not a single care in the world as skin slapped on skin, your cries and his intertwining into the air around you. Your cries were desperate, as you were sensitive from his treatment earlier. You both tumbled into various positions, being careful not to graze the new tattoos, although Cliff was handling you very roughly… Rougher than he has been in the past. He was ramming his cock into you with no remorse, and was slapping your ass just as hard with his right hand against your right ass cheek. You knew for damn sure that there were gonna be bruises from tonight.

 

You yelped every time he slapped your skin, and you cried out with every thrust against your g-spot.

 

Eventually, you and Cliff found yourselves sitting on the sandy coast together, watching the push and pull of the waves, cuddling in each others embrace as the welcoming aroma of the salty ocean breezed past you.

 

You didn't want this moment to end.

 

You didn't want to stop loving every bit of this man that you were so lucky and fortunate to call yours.

 

—

 

**_Whiskey A-Go-Go, 1982_ **

 

 

Come the final song of the setlist for Trauma at the Whiskey A Go-Go on the Sunset Strip, you immediately made your way up to the stage once the crowd dispersed and tackle hugged your significant other, squeezing him tightly. "Darling, that was _the_ baddest fuckin bass solo I have ever heard you play! Fuckin' wicked!" You looked up at him as he leaned down to peck you on the lips.

 

"Thanks baby… I'm so happy that you were able to come down here with me. It eased my mind to know that you were right there during the whole setlist…" He grinned happily as he let you go and started to help break down equipment and get everything off the stage.

 

"Did you need anything, Cliff? A drink? A smoke?" you asked as you followed him over to the various amplifiers that filled the stage that his bandmates were unplugging and lugging off.

 

"Just you" he admitted with a small smile. "I'm a simple man. Come find me outside in a bit. I gotta go help get the equipment back to the truck…"

 

"Do your thing, hun." You went up to him and pulled him towards you, kissing him gently on his luscious lips before nodding your head in agreement. "Okay. You kicked ass tonight, as usual… Love you babe." You both grinned lovingly at each other as you made your way off the stage, only to be greeted by two strangers headed right towards you, one with wavy, blonde hair dressed in a leather jacket, a Motorhead band shirt, leather pants, a bullet belt, and white high tops, accompanied by a shorter, brunette gentleman who was dressed very similarly. They almost collided with you on your way out, but you stopped just in time… Oh, how awkward that could've been.

 

"Hi.. uh, can I help ya?" you quirked a brow at their.. seemingly eagerness to hop onto the stage.

 

 

The taller guy, who was probably an inch shorter than Cliff, had his hands dug deep into his jacket pockets, who silently glanced at his brunette friend that was shorter than you were, who's gaze locked with yours, arms at his sides. "Yah, we uh saw you with the bass player for that band that just got off stage and we uh… We wanted to talk to him."

 

Right off the bat, you knew that the brunette was definitely from some foreign country, judging by his Danish accent. His friend simply nodded in response. "We were blown away by his bass tones… We were walking by and thought that he was the guitarist! We were searching the stage for the guitarist during the solo, only to find out that it was really the bass player all along! Fuck… His whole stage presence blew us away… It's unlike anything we've ever seen before. We just wanted to talk to the guy… If you don't mind."

 

You crossed your arms before stating, "Well… He's my partner… So… I can go ahead and pluck him from the rest of the band if you want…. But it'd take me a couple minutes, all right?"

 

The both of them were tense up until that moment, probably from nervousness, but you felt them start to relax after you told them that you'd bring them over.

 

"We uh… We'd really appreciate that," the brunette piped up again. He held his hand out. "Lars. Lars Ulrich."

 

You firmly shook his hand. "(Y/N)."

 

"Nice to meet ya. This is my bandmate, James."

 

"Hetfield. James Hetfield," he commented with… one of the most genuinely awkward smiles that you have ever seen in someone. Upon hitting the stage light, you noticed just how… blue his eyes were. You were lost in thought as your mind was wiring through as to why these names sounded so fucking familiar…

 

It hit you.

 

You paused before stating, "Wait…. James and Lars…" You reeled when you realized who you were talking to just now. "Like.. Metallica, right?" you tilted your head as you asked that question.

 

James and Lars seemed relatively surprised that you knew who they were. "Y-Yeah, actually!" James stammered immediately. "We're from Metallica all right… How'd you know?"

 

"Cliff and I got copies of Metal Massacre when it was first released and replayed the shit out of it… Hit the Lights at the very end of side two always stood out to me from the rest… We really enjoyed that song a lot, honestly."

 

James noticeably flushed with that, but you noticed that he was just trying to play it cool. "A-Ah. Thank you. We worked really hard on that demo… We're releasing a new EP soon… Hope you're able to grab a copy for yourself."

 

You smiled softly. "Yeah… Cliff and I were debating about traveling down south to see how LA's metal scene was… So far… I'm enjoying back home more."

 

"Where's home?"

 

"San Francisco. The Bay Area. The new metal scene brewing up there is fucking amazing… Lots of cool bands coming out and going big… It's been fucking trip, honestly. If you haven't been there, you should come up sometime. I think, with your style of music, you'd enjoy it a lot." You glanced behind you before backtracking up the stairs. "Here. Let me go find Cliff. Stay here."

 

You immediately zipped on out from in front of them, searching through the crowd for your significant other, glancing around as all the equipment had been pretty much been picked clean from the stage. You scurried outside to find Cliff.

 

Meanwhile, James and Lars stood beside each other at the base of the stage, arms crossed, glancing at each other.

 

"Do you think he'll say yes?"

 

"To joining us? I sure as hell hope so." James mumbled as he held his cup of beer in his hand. "He deserves to be in a band much better than that… I hate to say it, but the band is subpar compared to him."

 

Lars took a sip from his own cup and nodded in agreement. "I don't give a fuck. We _have_ to have him in the band. I don't care what it takes. If we're gonna be serious at all about what we're doing, we're gonna need someone like him… He's perfect."

 

"And Ron?"

  
"We'll figure it out when we get there."

 

Eventually, you were able to track Cliff down outside and approached him. "Babe!"

 

"Yeah?" he turned around at the sound of your voice and met your eyes. "What's up, darling?"

 

"Babe, come with me"

 

"Huh? Where?"

 

"Just come with me. There's someone that wants to meet you."

 

Cliff seemed perplexed at the idea of someone wanting to meet him, but went ahead and followed you when you took his hand to lead the way.

 

James and Lars were right there, leaning against the stage, waiting for you to return, having a conversation of their own as you approached.

 

"Cliff, meet James and Lars of Metallica. James and Lars, Cliff."

 

The two gentleman immediately straightened up at the introduction and held their hands out to shake Cliff's.

 

"We heard your bass solo and were mind blown when we realized that it wasn't a guitar." Lars immediately blurted out.

 

"We knew it sounded fatter than any guitar solos we have ever heard, but we had no idea that it was all coming from a bass guitar. You're a fucking beast, man!"

 

You could feel Cliff becoming slightly overwhelmed by the praises… After all, you were there that day at the music store when Cliff requested to get a guitar pickup installed into his bass guitar… You were there when Connie suggested that he put the guitar and the bass together, so that it was all in one… You were there when Cliff experimented with it for the first time, and you were there when his face lit up with numerous possibilities with his new toy.

 

The fact that people were noticing, and the fact that others were praising such an intricate change to his instrument, really blew him away… In a good way. He just wasn't used to taking compliments like this..

 

"Thanks… Thanks a lot… I worked really hard for my bass guitar to sound the way that it sounds… Hours of practice… Hours of understanding the instruments…" He gave a wary smile before analyzing the people in front of him. "James and Lars… of Metallica, right?"

 

They both seemed to glow at Cliff's realization.

 

"Yes! We're from Metallica!"

 

"(Y/N) and I were one of the first people to get a hold of Metal Massacre in our area, and we would just sit there in our room and listen to it in its entirety over and over and over again… Your track's the last one on there." He grinned. "I love it. A lot… I would recommend some changes here and there, but otherwise, it's wonderful. You're doing a great job."

 

"Thanks!"

 

Standing there, watching this interaction, would later bloom into something so much bigger than what Cliff was currently working on. Something that is going to completely change the course of history for the genre of music that Metallica strides for… A new era of metal… All of this, starting right here with this conversation. You were in awe of what was going on, how geeky these boys were for your own boy… How music is putting them together.

 

And then it slipped.

 

"We want you in our band. We really fucking want you in our band, Cliff… We could use someone like you… I know you have Trauma and all, but I honestly feel that you'd be more successful with us…"

 

You stood by your partner as Lars annunciated this for him, and as they continued to have a conversation about the possibility. You were both aware of what Metallica was currently capable of, as their music has circulated around the Bay Area. and how their music fit the type of music that Cliff was getting himself into… The logistics of it all was what was becoming complicated for you.

 

You found various questions attacking your mind:

 

Are we moving to LA?

 

Is he leaving Trauma for Metallica?

 

What's going to happen next?

 

Turns out Cliff ended up agreeing to joining them, with one condition.

 

"I'll join Metallica IF and only if you move up to my home. There's no way in hell I'm leaving the Bay Area. I love it up there, and it's where I want to stay. Move up to the Bay, and I'll be in your band. Otherwise, no. I won't."

 

That offer was the boldest you have ever heard Cliff talk… He was very sure of himself, and confident with his words, even though he was soft-spoken. He was extremely chill about this conversation…

 

Lars and James glanced at each other before James piped up, "We'll keep in touch."

 

You watched as the two men disappeared into the crowd of the nightclub, your eyes diverting back to Cliff. "So… What's next?"

 

"See if they move to the Bay Area… and figure it out from there." He locked eyes with you. "I've told you already… Trauma's been getting on my last nerve… They complain when I play their parts… They don't really want to go the metal route… At least, the metal route that I want to go… They want to do more Motley Crue-type things… glam metal… that's about it… I personally don't see myself growing with them anymore… I want to be in a band that will nurture my growth… Nurture my ideas and accept my basslines and songwriting… I feel that Metallica might do just that…" He wrapped his arms around you and sighed gently. "What do you think…?"

 

You inhaled deeply before responding, "Cliff… I want you to be happy with whatever you decide to do. If moving on to another band is what you want to do, then do it. I will support you no matter what happens, what you go through, and what you will end up doing. I just want you to do what thrills you and what pumps through your veins. You deserve happiness and joyfulness. If you think that moving on to Metallica is the right decision deep down… Then do it… What's there to lose?"

 

Cliff leaned down to kiss you, squeezing your waist affectionately. "How the actual _fuck_ did I deserve someone like you…?"

 

You blushed lightly and lovingly kissed him again in response. "I should be asking you that…"

 

"Thank you… Thank you for standing by me… and for being real with me… and… just for everything…"

 

"Thank _you_ for being you, baby.."

 

You didn't know it just yet, but this was just the calm before the storm.


	7. 3132

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After months of playing telephone with the boys of Metallica, and after much convincing, Cliff finally accepts their offer to join their band. James, Lars, and Dave pack their equipment into a U-Haul and move up north to the Bay Area in a small town called El Cerrito just north of Berkeley, California where memories will constantly be made in this cozy house on 3132 Carlson Boulevard.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AS OF 13 JUNE 2019, SPACE CADET IS PERMANENTLY DISCONTINUED. THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR SUPPORTING THIS PIECE OF WORK AND IT SADDENS ME THAT I WILL NOT GET TO SEE IT FINISHED. I HAVE HAD A LOT OF FUN WRITING THE CHAPTERS THAT I HAVE WRITTEN, HOWEVER, I CURRENTLY DO NOT HAVE THE WILL NOR THE TIME TO REALLY CONTINUE THIS WORK. 
> 
> I will however keep it online... There just won't be any more chapter additions to the story.
> 
> Hey everyone! Thank you so much for being so patient with these chapter updates. May was just as rough as April, and I was scrambling to keep my shit together... Didn't really have it in me to write anything. My last final for the semester is tomorrow, I found a new job, and I have been focusing on my own health. That being said, I present you with Chapter 7 of this fanfic! I personally was at the Metallica Mansion a week ago and had the opportunity to admire it from afar, which sparked brain juices to flow for this chapter for sure. I respected the current owners of the house and simply sat on the sidewalk across the street and gazed at it, imagining the countless memories that were had at this house. All the historical value this landmark has for metalheads like you and me. A landmark that ordinary people pass by daily and have NO idea whatsoever on how significant 3132 Carlson Boulevard is to the eyes of Metallica fans... and thrash metal fans in general! 
> 
> Anywho.
> 
> Enjoy this lengthy, latest chapter to the Space Cadet saga. Much love to all of you out there that enjoy my writing!

After the Trauma gig was over with, all that followed was cleaning up and heading back home. The band had rented out a U-Haul truck to carry all the gear together to and from locations, which gave you something to do. You were basically a roadie at that point, which, wasn’t something that you minded all too much. As the main person in charge of the equipment aside from the other band members, you had neatly placed everything in the back and secured them to prevent you and your partner from getting whacked dangerously by equipment rolling around, cramming what little space you even had together. The other three members of the band sat together in the front of the U-Haul while you and Cliff sat in the back of the truck, comfortably, with all the equipment surrounding you. You would sit in the dark for hours, all the way back home, feeling the bumps, potholes, and overall raggedness of the road beneath the churning wheels with nothing but each other’s company to keep you occupied. Luckily, you brought your walkman and a copious tape selection with you, so it wasn’t all that boring. You sat cheek to cheek with Cliff, one headphone squished against one ear, the other end squished against Cliff’s. He was slouched against the metal interior, holding you close with eyes shut, nuzzled affectionately against you as the hissing music played itself out to you. You found yourself reminiscing to the Disneyland trip, where you fell asleep in Cliff’s arms while listening to the music that you brought along for the ride at the time. This time, instead of being crammed into seats for two, you were sitting between Cliff’s legs which were affectionately wrapped around you, cuddling together in total darkness and frigid metal cusping your asses. You had thought about bringing a blanket and some pillows with you before going to SoCal, but decided not to, and slightly regretted it... as the back wasn’t the most comfortable... You wished you had brought something to cushion your rears... All you had was each other, which, was all that really mattered, you supposed.

When you got bored of the tapes, you tossed the walkman and headset aside and started singing songs instead. You would go through song after song, singing with Cliff, who would harmonize with you effortlessly while you sang the lead part, and vice versa. You found yourselves switching unintentionally, but in perfect harmonic synchronization. You grinned in the dark, knowing very well that Cliff couldn't see you, nuzzling into him as you sang songs that weren’t originally packaged with harmonies, which, when you struck the perfect chord, you felt shivers up and down your spine.

Cliff was actually a pretty decent singer, but he was very self conscious about his voice and was typically embarrassed about singing shit other than basslines and guitar riffs... With you, however, he was completely comfortable just being himself... Which was all that you wanted.

It got to the point where you started singing scales to each other, and singing harmonies  
to accompany the scale.

Damn.

You really were both bored out of your damn minds.

Once the truck stopped bumping along, and you heard the killing of the engine, you perked up at finally being free from this dark, moving prison box. The gate was pulled up with a harsh rattle of metal that clashed unpleasantly against your ears and you were met by the overwhelming brightness of the outside world, squinting as you took in the familiar Bay Area smell, breathing in the saltiness of the ocean from afar. You were greeted by the familiar seagulls cawing and circling the sky above. It had only been around 7 hours with no pitstops aside from gas, which, coincided with naps that you and Cliff took along the way. The boys didn’t wanna bother you both, as they could hear your snores seeping through the gate. You wondered if traveling would always be this way... Cliff and you climbed out of the truck and started to unload everything back in a Castro Valley home.

Home.

Home sweet home.

Weeks, months at this point had since passed from that trek back home. It was the beginning of the new year, the beginning of January, where the Bay Area weather was running its course harshly.

Rain. Lots of rain. Although, because you actually enjoyed the rain, you had no complaints. The weather itself was very calming to you.

The day that the boys of Metallica would arrive was forecasted to be sunny… which was definitely a good sign. You wouldn't have wanted to move them into their new home pouring rain and getting all of their shit soaked… So you were thankful that the elements weren't actually against you this time around.

Cliff had been talking back and forth over the phone with James and Lars about the status of them moving up north for months since the gig where you ran into the two at the Whiskey-A-Go-Go initially… After several hours of convincing Cliff to join them, it was finally happening, and he had let Trauma know that he was leaving to join Metallica... Either way, regardless of what they were gonna say, you knew that Cliff’s mind and heart were set. Trauma were a bit bland anyways, in your opinion. They weren't exactly the best fit for your Cliff… He deserved so much better. Actually, Cliff initially declined, even with the ultimatum for them to move north, but he changed his mind multiple times... You’ve never seen Cliff so indecisive about anything… He usually knew exactly what he wanted, when he wanted it, and he was usually stubbornly set on it. The whole ordeal frustrated him and it frustrated you because of the fact that he was so… fucking frustrated... It rubbed off on you, and not in the good way... You would be sitting there, minding your own business, when Cliff would randomly barge in and tell you, “Babe... I really want to be with Metallica... But... What if...” and he would trail off into the neverending what ifs...

What if it doesn’t work out?

What if I don't like them?

What if our personalities clashed together for the worse?

What if they... don't like you?

How would I be able to handle them not liking you and having to be around them knowing that they didn't like the love of my life?

What if it’s not worth it...?

Do you think we’ll be music centric or drug and alcohol centric like the rest of those big bands…?

Will we even be big in the first place? I don't know if I want to be… big….

Baby, what if we travel all over the world? Are you gonna be okay with that?

What if I'm gone for months… years… and you can't come with me or see me? I can't stand the thought of us being away from each other for so long…

What if this strains our relationship…?

What if...

Every time he asked you a "what if" question, you tried your hardest to keep your cool. You would pause before answering any of those questions, most of the time telling him that he was thinking about it way too much. To stop overthinking it. Easier said than done, of course. 

You reminded him that everything was gonna be okay.

That things were gonna work.

Whatever happens is gonna happen.

You would also ask him if he wanted to smoke it out, because his anxiety levels were getting way too high for comfort.

You just wanted him to relax….

You really wanted to bash his head in multiple times because of the fact that his indecisiveness was driving you up the fucking wall, but you tried your hardest to keep it cool...

It was finally set in stone before the ball dropped for the new year that Metallica was moving up north to El Cerrito, which was roughly 20 minutes away from your apartment that you and Cliff finally got in Castro Valley courtesy of his mother about a year ago when shit started to get serious with Trauma. Because he was getting a little extra from his gigs with Trauma, and because you had your Symphony job and theatrical job out in San Francisco, you were both able to split rent together, which definitely made it so much easier... It was nice to finally have your own place... being in a serious relationship with Cliff and all... getting to just be yourselves here... Without being a bother to his parents... or your own... Privacy that you now have to do whatever the fuck you wanted, whenever you fucking wanted…

You both loved and respected both your parents, and his parents felt like yours, and yours felt like his… You had a strong family support system, but it was time for you both to move out of your parents' places and find somewhere for your own to call home. You initially asked Cliff if he wanted to move into the El Cerrito house with the other boys, but he told you that he wanted to still have his own place… To have privacy with you. He valued you and your relationship more than anything, and he wasn't going to be with these boys that he just met a couple months back and leave you in the dust. He wanted to prove to you that while he was taking on a big commitment that his relationship with you came first over any of it… And you felt your love for him magnify with that statement from him.

You appreciated that he was juggling his passion with his passion for you.

Being in this space allowed you to get a dog of your own as well, since you couldn’t take your house dogs with you. You adopted a purebred, jet black german shepherd from the same breeder that gave your family Ace who was named Nova and registered him as an emotional support animal. At this point in time, your 1 1/2 year old German Shepherd went everywhere with you. Especially to places where Cliff wouldn't be with you, like class, work, the symphony even. He was your companion when your partner couldn't be around you… And you wouldn't have wanted it any other way… You had to install a strap in carrier to your bike to allow you to take your dog with you while you rode, since… dogs can't hold onto you like humans do when riding together on a bike. You didn't really mind all that much honestly… Gave you an excuse to get Nova dog goggles and helmet….

Although if you had it your way, you would want to be with Cliff 24/7…. But you both knew that that feat was impossible as of right now. As much as you wanted it to be true. As the days, weeks, months rolled by being with the love of your life, the more your love for him grew. You were madly in love with Cliff.. and he was with you. It certainly showed. Your love for each other knew no bounds, and nothing could take that away from you.

You were sitting on the couch in your living room of your two bedroom apartment. The space was perfect for you both, honestly. Ground floor with an actual backyard space. A master bedroom, which had a queen sized bed for you both, two walk in closets your clothes, floor to ceiling mirrors to both to check yourselves out every once in a while to be certain that you were heading out into the world looking… decent. There was a hallway which led to the living room as well as the bathroom where you had a single tub and shower, a sink with a mirror cabinet that held all your medications, and of course, a toilet. Your spare bedroom had all your music-related items, such as your tape collection, your 8-tracks, vinyl, and all of your instruments and amplifiers all in one space. Band posters littered the walls. Because you had the luxury of owning a back patio, you found yourselves spending most of your time unwinding by drinking and having smoke sessions. You kept your bongs and pipes stored on a small, round table with folding out seats facing the fenced off area. The great thing about the patio was that it was isolated; no other renter had a backyard patio like yours... At least, on your side of the complex anyways. The apartment itself was very interestingly laid out. For cheaper, someone could just rent out one room... You and Cliff were renting out a full space, the door to your apartment seemingly like a door to a house. Your living room had a minimalistic setup, just a couch and a radio… Honestly, everything else was very minimal, especially your kitchen. You only had the bare minimum necessities for cooking and dining… That didn't really change all that much.

(actual photos from actual apartments at the Mosaic apartment complex, which was possibly where Cliff's mother worked and where he legitimately had his own place...) 

(the backyard/patio space) 

(kitchen) 

(bathroom)

As you were sitting on the couch, Nova’s head and paws over your lap, Cliff sat right next to you, petting your dog's head, crossing his leg over his thigh, leaning back against the couch as he held the landline phone in the other hand, taking a final drag from his cigarette before passing it over to you. He placed it in your mouth as you took a long drag, killing the rest of it while you exhaled gently, putting out the cig in the ashtray in front of you. You both nonchalantly smoked cigarettes, but were way bigger fans of smoking weed... You both mainly juggled the two, but had a preference to getting high vs fueling the craving of harsh nicotine. 

James was on the other line, reaching Cliff from a motel they were staying at for now. They were over halfway to the Bay Area now at this point, taking the scenic route up north. Highway 1 against the Pacific coast.

"San Luis Obispo huh? Yeah, you're over halfway here. How are ya guys holding up?" Cliff asked as he scratched Nova’s head still, your own hand running against your dog's back. Such a spoiled pup. When Cliff's fingers scratched underneath his ear, you felt his hind paw excitedly patting up and down against the couch, Cliff scratching a sweet spot.

"We're holdin up okay. Been drinking basically the whole way up there… It's the only way to pass the time… Take a pitstop and drink, really… Although one of us has to stay slightly sober to drive and all that… Lars has been switching off with me… Dave's been… getting pretty wasted…. We'd have a beer or two and he'd down a bottle of Jack… It's starting to get a little out of hand…" James admitted slowly.

"Well. Hopefully that doesn't surface an issue." Cliff stopped petting Nova. "I can't wait to see everyone here."

"We can't wait to be there." James chuckled audibly, you hearing it over the phone as you cuddled against Cliff. "Can't wait to get to know ya more. Your partner too. Are ya… married? Or takin it easy…? Or…"

Cliff paused, since you were there next to him, but you didn't hear the question, so he decided to reply with when he was certain that you weren't honing in on the conversation, "I'm thinking of asking soon. Very soon."

“Good for ya, man. How soon?"

Cliff paused once again, looking down at you, then at the promise rings still on both of your fingers before replying, "We can talk about it more when everyone gets here… How does that sound?"

James grinned. "All right. I respect that. They're next to ya, huh?"

Cliff chuckled as he placed his gentle, calloused hand over your own. "Yeah. Don't wanna give it away." He rubbed the top of your hand with his thumb affectionately.

"Fair enough. Again, can't wait to get to know you both."

You felt Cliff's arm wrap around you affectionately with that statement from James. "My partner would love to get to know all of you. They're a musician too, yannoe."

You blushed at that statement from Cliff, which, was the only thing that you heard in the past minute, having spaced out, pushing him playfully with that, cheeks puffed. "Don't go spreading lies about my musicianship!" you teased.

"Ah-ah-ah! You are one of the most talented musicians I have ever met, baby. Don't tell me otherwise!"

"You're just saying that…" you grumbled.

"Sorry James. (Y/N) doesn't take compliments well, especially in front of other people. They're really good, trust me. They can honestly pick up any instrument that you can think of…. And they have a killer vocal range!"

You blushed heavily with that statement, burying your face into his chest. "Cliff….."

"Yeah? I'd love to hear that!" James grinned, crossing his arms as he glanced up to see Dave downing yet another bottle, sighing to himself. "Haven't even been here for 10 minutes and the Smirnoff's already halfway gone. The one that we were supposed to spilt amongst ourselves." He simply shook his head. "All right… Well… We'll be there within the next day or two… Like I said, it's just a couple more hours away. Didja wanna meet us in El Cerrito or didja want us to meet you in Castro Valley?"

  
"We can meet up in El Cerrito. You got the address of the place you're stayin at?" Cliff got a piece of paper and pen ready for when James would give him the address.

"Yeah, it's 3132 Carlson Boulevard, El Cerrito."

"Thanks. We'll meet there tomorrow then."

"Sounds good Cliff. Seeya! Bye (Y/N)!"

"Bye James!" you responded back. "Be safe out there!"

"Will do. Bye!"

"Seeya James," Cliff bid farewell.

CLUNK!

Cliff hung up the phone, pushing the whole unit back to the center of the table and turned over to you. "The wheels are turning real fast on this whole thing… You holding up okay…?"

You simply nodded your head with a small smile. "I should be the one that's asking you that! I'm really proud and excited for you… All that time getting to know them over the phone… getting acquainted with them… All the time spent anxiously waiting for this moment on your end… This whole gig with Metallica is fucking huge! The fact that they wanted to move up north to where we live shows that they're passionate about you and about what they want to fulfill in the coming weeks and months."

Cliff pressed a small kiss to your forehead and gazed at you. "It's pretty exciting. They're gonna be getting ready to produce their first album, and I get to be a part of that."

"Any details of where you're gonna be headed yet to record that?" You pursed your lips. "We did get a chance to hear that No Life 'Til Leather demo tape… I think you could really help improve the sound on it, if those are the songs that they intend on recording."

Cliff thought about it for a second before saying, "I'm not really entirely sure where we're gonna record this album yet…I think we're gonna figure it out as it gets closer. As for making the album sound better… I do have a couple ideas…. I'd have to see how rehearsals go with them before throwing out my suggestions." Cliff's eyes locked with yours as he bit his lip, stating, "(Y/N), I really want you to come with me… Wherever we end up going to record this album.. I want you there by my side as I go through all this… I can't stand the thought of being away from you for long periods of time… And we'd be gone for a couple weeks… months, maybe…"

You blushed with that. "If I'm able to, I will most definitely come with you everywhere… I'm gonna have to see babe…" You locked eyes with him. "Things are shifting in the direction that you have wanted them to shift for the longest time… You're finally getting what you want out of all this… You get to finally prove yourself to the world that you're a fucking kick-ass bass player… This band is gonna get you so many gigs… I can already feel it.. and I am beyond proud of you, hun… You deserve this."

Cliff leaned in to properly kiss you on the lips lovingly with that, running a hand through the dog's fur that was beneath you both. "This calls for a celebration."

You pet Nova one last time before looking at your pup in the eyes. "Okay, boy. Go to your kennel. Come on." You stood up and he did the same, trotting over to his kennel by the living room window, laying down in it as you shut and locked the door to it. "Good boy." You scratched his head through the crate and smiled warmly as you handed him a treat. "See you in the morning, bud…" With that, you tossed a blanket around the crate where Nova peacefully laid there, relaxed.

You squealed as you felt Cliff wrap his hands around your waist, pulling you back towards him once you put your dog to bed, twirling you so that you faced him as he kissed you passionately, grinning as he nipped at your lips. He led you over to the bedroom and pressed you against the glass balcony door, his thumbs rubbing circles affectionately against your skin beneath your shirt. Just when you thought things were going to get steamy, he led you out onto the balcony where he pulled a bag of weed from his denim jacket, cracking the bag open and letting you smell the wonderful aroma. You practically salivated from the scent of the grass alone, grinning widely in excitement.  
Damn. You both really, truly were the biggest potheads that you knew.

"How didja wanna take it today, baby?" He gestured to the bong, the pipes, and the swisher wrappers that were sitting neatly on the table.

"Bong. We haven't used our bong in a while."

“Good choice.” Cliff grabbed it by the chamber and sat down next to you in the camper seats that you set up outside, breaking apart the buds and sprinkling pieces into the bowl, handing it to you once it was ready to go. You struck your lighter against the buds and positioned your mouth into the mouthpiece, hearing the water below bubbling as smoke began to rise through the chamber. You pulled the bowl out and took a giant rip, pulling away and exhaling with a gentle cough, leaning into the mouthpiece again, positioning the bowl in its place once more as you took another mini hit, handing the bong over to Cliff once you were done. You coughed once again, feeling warm and fuzzy inside as you gave a stupid grin. "Shit… That tastes great… What strain is this?"

"Haze, believe it or not" Cliff smirked as he relit the bowl and took a hit himself, exhaling a gentle cloud effortlessly.

"No fuckin' way. How the hell did you get Haze?" You recalled this strain being one of the best sativas that you could get, grown locally in Santa Cruz… But you knew that because of its potency, it was difficult and expensive to come across.

"Remember when I had a gig with EZ Street out in Santa Cruz? Mike Bordin... Remember Mike Bordin?”

“Of course I fucking remember Mike! The Puffster! Your best friend! We grew up and went to school with him... Haven’t seen nor heard his name in a while. What about him?”

“After the gig in Santa Cruz, he tossed this bag at me. I was gifted a whole ziplock of just Haze from him from some dude in the crowd that loved our gig. I've been saving it for the right time."

"Damn.. EZ Street though? That was so fucking long ago, Cliff…. Why the fuck would you leave this on the shelf for so long?"

"Because we have bags and bags of weed just sitting under our bedroom mattress alone, not to mention the cabinet in the bathroom? Now's the perfect time to whip out Haze, after everything that’s been going on." He grinned stupidly, already feeling his high radiating from within. That's how potent this strain was, and you were both frequent smokers. Yes, the highs are mostly instant, but man, this strain felt so damn good.

Shit.

The rest of what happened throughout the night was a buzzed blur in your memory, and not necessarily in a bad way at all. After a couple bowls, you found yourselves undressed in bed, feeling Cliff hammering into you at a ruthless, relentless pace. You recalled trying to hold back your screams because of how late at night it was, and because you lived in an apartment, which had thick walls to begin with, but you knew that these noises were going to escape from you no matter what. Especially because he knew how to treat you. You ended up squealing in total, blissful pleasure, letting the moans flow out from the depths of your throat. You buried your face into the pillows beneath you to muffle the sounds as best you could, although Cliff would grab you by your hair and yank you back up to hear your cries.

Fuck.

That turned you on even more.

Your limbs tangled together in so many various ways, and there were various positions on how you took him, but your favorite position had to be doggy style, just because Cliff had all the control over you, which turned you on even further than you already were. Your favorite part about the position was the fact that you would conform to his will most of the time. He would either pin you down roughly while fucking you from behind, or he would hold you by the wrists, causing you to arch your back as he slammed his sex into you. That, or he just gripped your waist tightly, enough to bruise sometimes, while riding out his release.

And because you were high, all of the sensations that originally felt phenomenally good were heightened to feel… phenomenally _fucking_ good.

You found yourself moaning and crying out desperately in undeniable pleasure.

_Ohh… fuuuuck ♥_

_Cliff…_

_Faster…._

_C-Cliff…! Mmm….._

_O-Oh fuck…._

_C L I F F! ♥_

Your wantonly wet and desperate cries reverberated around the room as well as Cliff's palm constantly smacking your ass in response to the pleasure that you were providing him, your mattress creaking beneath you both as he thrusted into you with no remorse.

"You dirty little minx…" he growled with total lust for you as he bucked himself into your sweet core.

Eventually you were both cuddled together, completely wiped out from the sexual activity that felt like it lasted for hours... even though you both knew that it was much shorter than that...You were both built with stamina and could both last a while, but it definitely wasn't hours. Maybe an hour at most... Sex was a frequent activity... and you both worked yourselves up to lasting long. Seeing how long you could edge yourselves out was what made sex so... interesting, honestly. Numerous positions, various ways of fucking... Countless ways of contorting your bodies into positions you never thought were possible... Spicing up the bedroom by performing BDSM-type scenes... There was just so much about sex that wasn't.. even really  _about_ sex... Cliff could tie you up in very fancy knots with thick rope and not even fuck you and still have a great experience... Sex was just such a fundamental part of bonding for you both... Yet, it wasn't the only thing that was keeping your relationship afloat... It was a bonus. You sighed happily at the end of your session, nuzzled against Cliff. His arms were loosely around you as he spooned you, kissing the nape of your neck affectionately.

You would moan gently every time he kissed you there, and you knew for damn sure that he was purposefully leaving a hickey there.

He knew damn well that you both were meeting up with the boys of Metallica tomorrow.

Which was why he marked you.

So they know that you're taken.

That you're his.

It was his plan all along.

He breathed into you before stating, "You're mine, (Y/N)… All mine… My good... obedient... little slut…" He mumbled these huskily into your ear, which turned you on once again.

"I'm yours…" you responded back in a small daze.

"You're my what?" he breathed into your neck.

"I'm... I’m your little slut," you responded, causing Cliff to groan in utter arousal.

"That's right. You're mine." he emphasized. "Mine, mine, mine." He nibbled at your hickey’d skin once more, to annunciate possession.

Once he finished gnawing at your skin, you sighed happily in his embrace. "And you're mine. My space cadet…."

Cliff inhaled sharply before breathing out laxly, mumbling in a raspy voice to you, "After all these years…” he started slowly, “I finally understand why you call my space cadet…"

You chuckled softly. "Was my answer back in high school not good enough for you?"

"I mean… I get it, you think I'm out of this world… But space cadet is like… space cowboy."

"Like… Steve Miller Band, right?" you tried to connect the two together.

"Kinda…? But space cowboy is slang for a pothead… Space Cadet is basically the same thing." He squeezed you affectionately before grumbling, "You callin me a pothead, pothead?"

You burst out laughing with that statement. "Babe. You ARE a pothead."

"Yeah, and so are you!"

"Uhh. Duh! I'm too high for intellectual conversation."

"Intergalactic what now?"

You shook your head and laughed in total amusement. "Yes, space cadet. That is why I call you space cadet… not just because you're out of this world, but because you're the biggest pothead that I know… Just as big of a pothead as me. My lovely space cadet, trippin' out and always havin' a good time."

Cliff snickered and paused before commenting. "Mission accomplished. Landed in Uranus."

You scoffed. "My anus? No way. You know I don't like butt stuff."

"Or do you?"

"Nuh-uh. I'll do any other kinky thing... No way am I doing butt stuff anytime soon."

"I'm sure it's overrated anyways." Cliff nuzzled into you. "But seriously, (Y/N)… Butt stuff... kinky stuff aside. I love you. I love you so fucking much… And with everything happening all at once… I'm so thankful to have someone like you in my life to hold me down… To keep me grounded… and to remind me that I'm human and that I can only do so much…"

"I really do all those things for you…?"

"And then some."

—

Before you knew it, you were helping the members of Metallica move into their new home for the time being in El Cerrito, lugging their stuff from the U-Haul into the garage of 3132 Carlson Street where they would be spending most of their time songwriting and planning out their upcoming album concepts.

Eventually, everything was settled down, and you, Cliff, and the rest of the boys were all seated in the garage together, drinks in everyone's hands as "cheers" were passed around to each other.

"Welcome to the Bay Area," Cliff started as he took a sip from his drink. "Hope you like it here."

"Already better than SoCal, and it hasn't even been that long yet," James admitted.

You settled beside Cliff as you drank the beer in your hand, looking up at your partner when he stated, "It's a beautiful place honestly… You'll grow to love it more." He wrapped his lengthy arm around you. "This is my partner, (Y/N), by the way. They'll be coming to most of our jam sessions and rehearsals, if that's all right…. They're also a musician."

The other blonde who you haven’t met yet grinned at you while he downed the rest of his beer, going for his second cup by his feet. “Yeah, whaddya play, sweetheart?”

You were already getting not-so-good-vibes from this guy, but you simply responded with, “Bass... Guitar... Vocals... Other stringed instruments...”

“Impressive!” Dave was already halfway through. “Name’s Dave by the way. Dave Mustaine.”

“(Y/N).”

“Lovely name for someone as lovely as yourself. Nice to meetcha."

Cliff almost defensively sat closer to you and wrapped his arm around your waist discreetly while sipping his beer.

“Yannoe," Dave continued, "I wasn’t there to hear Cliff play... Why dontcha both play us something?”

You swallowed hard with that statement as you glanced at your significant other before your eyes shifted back to Dave. "There are way too many songs to play… I'm not sure if I can pick one right off the top of my head." As you said that, your mind began cycling through various titles of songs that you could potentially woe them by. "Any ideas babe?" You decided to see what Cliff thought. 

Cliff set his drink down and met your gaze when you turned your head his way. “Something that'll flow naturally… but still sound good."

"That _really_ fuckin' makes picking a song easier, hun, thank you," you grumbled sarcastically as your brain settled on something that Cliff would definitely pick up on.

"You're welcome, sweetheart." Cliff smirked at you as you both simultaneously stood up to showcase your talents.

You waltzed over to one of the amps, plugging in one of the guitars, paying no mind to its owner, tuning it quickly by ear, almost naturally as Cliff did the same with his bass guitar, plugging himself in. You strummed a couple chords to make sure that everything was in tune, glancing at Cliff as you start to slide your fingers against the fretboard, bending the strings as the guitar wailed in your hands. You made it sing as you performed a small solo, slamming hard on a chord as Cliff did a bass solo on top of it. Despite improvising on the spot, you both were in complete synchronicity, not overpowering each other in any way, but rather making one another pop as you jabbed at solo riffs one after the other. James, Dave, and Lars all sat back in their seats and watched you both with interest as you communicated to each other with your instruments and through solid chemistry that flowed so naturally, your guitar and his bass were practically singing along together. You both abruptly stopped as you gazed at your partner, grinning as you swayed your body and head to do a silent lead in, head bobbing up and down to the equivalent of vocally saying "1-2"3-4", playing the off beat beginning riff to "Whole Lotta Love" by Led Zeppelin.

As you laid down the riff, Cliff laid down the bassline on top, just like the recording, grinning at your song choice. This was definitely a song that you both enjoyed very much, and it was certainly clear in the way that you were executing the song.

When Lars figured out what song you were both playing, he immediately hopped onto his drum kit that was, thankfully for him, already set up, laying down the drum beat to what you both were doing, which caused you to grin stupidly as you approached the mic stand with a mic that was connected to another amp.

"You need coolin'… Baby, I'm not foolin'… I'm gonna send ya… back to schoolin'… Way, way down inside… A-honey you need it…. I'm gonna give ya my love! I'm gonna give ya my love! Ohhh! Want a whole lotta love.." Cliff was swaying along with you as you started to strum harder once you weren't singing, your hair flying around as you tossed your head back and forth to the rhythm of the song, getting completely into it. This was your first time in a long time playing with someone other than Cliff, and the three of you had such great chemistry for only having played together just now.

Cliff was digging the song choice and was grooving along, Dave and James observing you both as you found extreme enjoyment out of all of this.

You continued with the song with as much energy as you could muster up, moaning and groaning along the way like Robert Plant did in the song, accentuating it all with your powerful, soulful voice while simultaneously swaying your hips and body to the beat. Cliff, and potentially the rest of the boys, would be lying if they said that the way you delivered this song turned them on.. But they kept it to themselves.

When the song was over, Dave and James clapped, Dave proclaiming, "That was fucking amazing! You both have such great chemistry together, which really made Lars blend well. Damn.. You should be in a band too!"

You laughed softly as you strummed a couple chords. "I was in a band with Cliff for many, many years… but now that he's moved on to yours… I'll just be here on the sidelines supporting him." You grinned, turning your head to Lars behind the drumset. "Didja wanna do another song?"

Lars in response started drumming the beat to Diamond Head's Helpless, hoping that you and Cliff would know it.

You smirked widely, swiping the guitar back up as you and Cliff simultaneously started strumming the crunchy beginning, both of you banging your heads, hair flying messily into the air as you swept up to the mic and started singing roughly, "I gotta see ya movin' fast.. see ya come my way… See the dreams, I hope they last... never fade away."

Lars was having the time of his life, throwing his drum beats out there as James and Dave bopped their heads to the song, James singing along with you.

For the next couple hours, instead of finishing up moving, you all got drunk off your fucking asses and jammed together, laughing, messing around, having a good time.

Cliff was a much more sociable drunk than when he was sober… You tended to be friskier when you were drunk, but you were still able to control yourself. James, Dave, Lars… All of them, were loud as fuck when they were drunk… Loud and proud. 

It was now the dead of night, and the city ordinance was now in place, which forced you all to finish unloading the U-Haul, prepping to return it tomorrow since you couldn't continue your musical shenanigans... Wouldn't want to get complaints after just moving everyone in. That would look terrible, and wouldn't set a good track record for the many months and years that would be spent at this place. 

"Mmmmk tomorrow we'll discuss plans for the new album," James grumbled, finishing up his can of beer, having lost count of how many he had consumed, glancing at you and Cliff. "It was nice jamming along with you both today. (Y/N), you're welcome here anytime. You're welcome to come here with Cliff during rehearsal… You're welcome to put in your input as well to what you think we should do." He belched with a grin. "Consider yourself as an honorary member. You deserve it for kicking so much ass!"

Dave raised his beer with that. "To Metallica!"

"Cheers!" you grinned as everyone clunked their cans and cups to each others'. You made sure that you weren't totally wasted…. Someone had to drive yours and Cliff's asses home.. And it definitely wasn't gonna be him. You hardly trusted him driving sober… No way in hell is he gonna be a passable driver when he's drunk.

Fuck that.

Cliff leaned in to kiss you after he finished up his last beer for the night, the other band members cooing and whooing over your love for each other.

"So how didja even meet each other in the first place?" the Danish guy asked, arms crossed as he smiled at both of you.

"Yeah! We'd love to hear that story before you both go," James added as he sipped at his can.

You glanced at Cliff with that. "Didja want me to tell it or can your drunk ass hold a story together?"

Cliff rolled his lips with a lopsided grin. "Nahhhh I go this. Let me tell it!"

"All right, all right. But don't mind me if I end up interrupting you." You belched after that comment.

Cliff shook his head and wrapped his arms around your waist affectionately, resting his chin gently on the top of your head. "(Y/N) and I met even before we really knew each other." He gave a soft belch, squeezing your waist with that. "Our parents moved next door to each other… Well, their parents lived across the street from my apartment.. They lived in a small house together and my parents stayed at the apartment complex. They were an only child while I had an older brother and sister. Because they didn't have any siblings, we became really close once we were old enough to run around and get into trouble. Our parents both nurtured us until we were able to be on our own.. and whenever (Y/N)'s parents went out of town, which was often, they'd be dropped off at my place to sleep over and spend time with my family… Their parents and my parents were that close. They still are this close today, honestly!"

Dave seemed perplexed at the pronoun usage. "Why do you keep using 'they' for (Y/N)? Isn't 'they' a plural pronoun?"

Cliff immediately became defensive about the topic. "(Y/N) doesn't really identify as either male nor female… so they is the neutral pronoun use."

Dave crossed his arms. "I'm not trynna pick a fight or anythin… I'm just… perplexed by it. I've never heard anyone wanting to be called 'they'… It just.. sounds wrong t' me…."

"That's 'cuz ya haven't met anyone else who uses it…Respect it, or we're gonna have a problem."

Dave huffed, clearly wanting so badly to challenge Cliff with that, but held his tongue. He didn't want to be seen as the bad guy here... All he could really do was outwardly showcase expressing respect towards this... Even if he still didn't really fully get it. "All right, all right, continue the story."

James and Lars shifted uncomfortably at the tension that was starting to rise, keeping silent as all attention was directed towards Cliff again.

Cliff exhaled sharply before stating, "(Y/N) and I grew up together, and we were always bonded together by our parents… And besides, we wanted to be around each other." He kissed the top of your forehead affectionately with that.

You smiled, feeling all warm and fuzzy from the alcohol that you consumed, nuzzling into Cliff as you decided to pick up the story. "Cliff was, and still is, very reserved… He liked being on his own, by himself… Especially when his older brother Scott died from a brain aneurysm… That was really hard on him, and hard on my family as well… We're really close to the Burtons, so they're essentially extended family to me… I was the only person, out of everyone in his family and out of everyone in our grade level that could get through to Cliff and who could pull him out from isolation… He spent a lot of time in his room, locked up, playing bass guitar for hours and hours on end until it was too dark or too late to play at a good volume… I found myself barging into his room and joining him. Accompanying him… Anything… I was the only person he'd accept… He'd shoo his older sister and his parents away… But if I showed up at his apartment in front of his door and knocked, he would let me in and let me in on what he was practicing."

Cliff nodded his head and made an affirmative noise. "Yeah…. Their company was much appreciated in that time… It was a time where I wasn't really sure of myself, but that the only path that I could really take was music." He pursed his lips. "I… Wanna say that I've had feelings for (Y/N) since.. months after Scott died…." he admitted. "I just wasn't really sure how to admit it at the time… "

"is that why you let me in willingly on basically everything?"

"Maybe. I enjoyed your company…. But I also just enjoyed… you. As a person. As a being that was in my space at the time… think my feelings for you really grew during this time…"

"You just didn't wanna break our relationship as friends," you concluded.

"Yeah…"

"Well... That's a common fear that people have when they seek a relationship that extends further than just being friends..." 

James smiled widely. "That's so great that your love for each other just grew organically. And over such a long period of time!"

Lars nodded his head in agreement. "Ya can get through anythin together… Through thick and thin, quite literally."

"When are ya gonna pop the question?" Dave asked. "And is that gonna affect your relationship with the band? Will touring get in the way?"

You shook your head and leaned into Cliff. "All I want is for Cliff to be happy. And if he's happy with Metallica, I'm happy. I might not be able to go to every single leg of a tour, but I will definitely try to be there when I can."

"in terms of popping the question," Cliff continued the train of thought, "Soon. Very soon. (Y/N) won't even see it comin."

You blushed. "Cliff. You want me to be honest with you?"

"Hit me with your best shot."

"I can't see myself with anyone BUT you… So I can't wait to officially be yours under the law. Don't hold back."

Laughter was tossed around the room, as well as suggestive facial expressions among the guys.

"It's gonna be a whirlwind of fun." James nodded his head with that statement.

"So when didja start dating exactly?" Lars asked with a raising of his brows.

"Well… We've known each other since we were 1-year-olds…. But we didn't really start dating seriously till our senior year of high school…. So it's really only been almost three years now… But it's felt so much longer than that…"

 "Maybe because we spent so much of our waking hours together. Every time we were apart from each other felt odd… We basically spent every single day together, whether at school, home, or on a family trip with our parents…"

Cliff nodded his head in agreement. "Every summer," he added, "our parents would take us on some road trip somewhere. We'd be in a van together, me and (Y/N) in the way back seat, Connie and Scott, when he was alive, in the middle row, with our parents occupying the extra seats. We'd go to Tahoe… Or Yosemite… Half Moon Bay… Places near and far… We've been all over the states together."

"it's been quite the journey being in your life, baby…" you mumbled sheepishly as you shut your eyes, Cliff squeezing you.

"Likewise. I can't picture it any other way..."

"Your love story is so pure and sweet… I hope I find love like that someday," James admitted. "I strive to be in a relationship like yours…"

"I love Cliff to death… as does he with me… I'd do anything for him, and he'd do anything for me… I respect his decisions and what he wants to do…. And he respects me for what I want in life. We've always been this way towards each other, even in childhood. We respected each others' decisions, even if it wasn't something that we'd agree on. I think that's partially why we work so well together.. Allowing each other to be the person that they want to be while being open to their opinions on things… And being flexible and understanding…"

"(Y/N) didn't hesitate on letting me join Metallica… in fact, they were extremely supportive and wanted me to pursue it in the first place… Don't get us wrong, though. We're not the perfect couple. We have our shitshows… But at the end of the day, my love for my partner will never die."

"My love for Cliff is unlike any love that I have felt before… I don't know what I'd do without him."

 

You didn't know what you'd do without Cliff.

 

Cliff was your world. Your universe.

 

He was your best friend.

 

Your lover.

 

In this moment, you felt invincible. You felt that nothing could possibly weigh you down.

 

Everything in life was gonna go extremely well:

 

You'd get married to the love of your life.

You'd have a conversation about kids and if you even wanted them in the first place.

You'd produce children…. or even just fur babies with the love of your life.

You'll be supportive of career choices.

You'll live life for your own, and for your family.

 

Nothing could take this away from you.

 

Or at least….

 

So you thought…

 

You climbed into Cliff's Grasshopper to start the engine, gazing at the time, which was 3 am. At least the freeway would be… well, free. Free of stupid people. You warmed up the engine and punched in a tape, drumming gently on the tattered up wheel, waiting for Cliff to join you to head home. The garage and home wasn't enough for you all… and you wanted privacy… Especially around the other boys, so you were glad that you had your apartment back in Castro Valley.

While you were waiting, Cliff was mingling with the Metallica boys, his official band members, for the last time tonight.

"(Y/N) is a keeper. I hope you hold onto them and don't let go," Lars commented.

"When are you gonna drop down on one knee and ask them for their hand in marriage…?" James asked. "You mentioned talking about it more when we physically saw each other again...So spill!" 

Cliff thought about it a bit before stating, "Honestly..,? I wanna propose to them as soon as we're done recording the first album… Maybe when we get back home… I don't wanna propose to them during a concert… They don't like getting that kind of attention… and neither do I… So.. I'm thinking after everything with the new album is done..."

"Sounds good. We've booked a time in New York to record it… So we'll be in New York. Maybe you could propose to them then?"

"Or maybe when we get back home.. I wanna bring them to a spot that they love… Like in San Francisco… Or maybe even at Lake Chabot… I might need your guys' help with it."

"Just let us know how we can help, and we'll definitely help you out," Dave grinned with that. "This is all so exciting. Not often are people our age certain about marriage."

Cliff chuckled gently. "Anyways. I've kept my partner waiting long enough. We'll be back tomorrow for rehearsal and for discussion about going to New York."

"Sounds good Cliff. Can't wait!" Lars responded. "See you tomorrow!"

"Catcha later." Cliff disappeared and approached his car, climbing in the passengers' seat.

"That private conversation went by real fast… What didja guys talk about?"

  
"Heading to New York to record the new album apparently. "

"That sounds awesome! We've never been to New York before! That's gonna be an eye opener for sure."

"I just hope that you're gonna be able to tag along with me… And if not.. I hope that you can at least come for a part of it…"

"We'll see baby.. We'll see."

 

You leaned in to kiss him sweetly before tossing your seat belt on and speeding off down Carlson and onto Central Avenue, following it west until you hit the 80 freeway, following the signs back home.

Oakland/Alameda

 

Alameda/San Jose

San Jose

Castro Valley

Home.

(Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) map, showing Castro Valley location within the Bay Area.)


End file.
